


Don't close your eyes

by MzDany



Series: The Cam/Hunter universe [6]
Category: Power Rangers Ninja Storm
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-07
Updated: 2012-07-07
Packaged: 2017-11-09 08:12:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 40,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/453279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MzDany/pseuds/MzDany
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blue Bay Harbor’s most notorious criminal has a score to settle with the Wind ninjas – and it will have Cam fighting for his life. Can his friends save him in time? Slash Cam/Hunter</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was another beautiful day in Blue Bay Harbor, California; the sun was shining, the azure sky was flecked with fluffy white clouds, birds were chirping in the crisp winter air – and a giant monster was stomping towards the Southside Mall, clearly intent on not just destroying the shopping center itself, but also everything along the way.

Hot on its heels were two equally huge, multicolored robotic machines - the Thunder Megazord and the Storm Megazord. Overhead, the blades of a sleek, green helicopter cut through the air as it swooped down, circling the monster's head. The creature let out an annoyed shriek and batted at the chopper, but its pilot evaded the clumsy swipe effortlessly.

"Hurry, guys," Cam called into his helmet headset. "Shoppazilla here is getting ready to level Macy's in a moment. Gun it, Shane!"

A quarter of a mile down the street, the Red Wind Ranger accelerated the Storm Megazord's speed to maximum setting. The Rangers' massive battle machines literally flew up Main Street.

"Is it me or have those freaks been getting uglier lately?" Dustin commented from his cockpit as Lothor's latest super-sized creation came into sight again after the Megazord rounded the last corner.

"You ain't lying, dude," Shane replied with a shake of his helmeted head. "Seems like Lothor's running out of original ideas and tries to make up for it with sheer hideousness. Not to mention that he must've been watching way too many Japanese horror flicks lately."

And hideous it was - a fusion between Godzilla and Mothra, the creature had a powerful, T-Rex-like body, sported a spiked tail and four multi-jointed arms, each one ending in five wickedly sharp claws. The dinosaur similarities, however, ended there; on its back was a set of incessantly buzzing membranous wings that looked pathetically small compared to the rest of his enormous size. Its head was distinctly insectile - and oddly reminiscent of Marah's hat. Long black antennae were quivering with every step it took. Its oversized shiny-black eyes were firmly fixed on the department store front ahead of it, its mandibles clicking loudly in thrilled anticipation of the destruction to come.

Shoppazilla looked ridiculous - but then again, this was Lothor's monster. What else was there to expect?

The Storm Megazord raised its sword, but a powerful swipe of the beast's tail flung the weapon aside at the same time as it thrust two of its arms forward - right through Macy's front facade.

"Aw no! Not on my favorite mall!" the Blue Ranger cried. "And tomorrow they were supposed to start their pre-Christmas sale..."

The Thunder Megazord came to a stop a few yards behind the creature and Hunter aimed his robot's shoulder lasers. "Man, I hope that thing isn't planning on sitting on Santa's lap."

The Thunderzord fired a fusillade of energy at the dino-moth.

"Hey, if you want first pick on the sales, use the front door like everyone else," the Navy Ranger exclaimed.

Shoppazilla surprised everyone by agilely dodging the energy blasts, but instead of going on the offensive, it quickly scurried around and along the side of Macy's towards a large side entrance that led into the main body of the mall. Hunter cursed the missed shot under his breath, a knot of dread slowly forming in his gut as he turned the Thunder Megazord, intent on heading after the monster.

Thankfully, the citizens of Blue Bay Harbor, necessarily familiar with the need to quickly clear out at the first sign of monster attacks, had already evacuated the mall. Or at least that's what it looked like.

Nevertheless, Southshore Mall was a structure built mostly for elegance and sleekness, glass and marble being the foremost building material. Consequently, the potential for very costly damages was enormous. They had to get to the freak before it...

Too late. Hunter cringed behind his visor as one of Shoppazilla's fists crashed through the domed glass ceiling of the mall.

"Shane, we have to get it away from the building before I can risk another shot," Hunter cried.

"On it," came the prompt response. The Storm Megazord had retrieved its fallen weapon and once again advanced on the creature. Hunter was about to aim his lasers again when Cam's voice cut through the intercom.

"Hunter, my scans are showing three life signs still inside the mall. Two in an elevator and one in the men's rest room. We need to get these people out!"

Hunter cast a look at the angry dino-creature, then at the crumbling glass ceiling of the shopping center. The Storm Megazord and the Samurai Chopper could handle Shoppazilla; the people inside the mall were priority!

"All right, Blake and I will take care of the civilians," he replied while reaching out to unbuckle his safety harness, knowing his brother was already doing the same. "Just keep the freak from taking another chunk out of the building."

"Will do." The Samurai Chopper swooped down, firing a short volley of energy into the monster's back that singed its wings. With an outraged roar, the creature spun around, taking swipes and throwing punches at the helicopter. But it did get Shoppazilla's attention away from the building and the two Thunder Rangers were able to duck under its massive tail and enter the shopping center undetected.

The center of the mall was a mess of broken glass and bent steel beams from the ceiling. Dust from broken plaster and cracked slabs of marble clogged the air and it took Hunter a moment to get his bearings. Glass was predominant in this part of the mall - Apart from the domed ceiling, there were enormous crystal chandeliers, huge interior storefront display windows as well as four glass-enclosed elevators running between the three shopping levels of the mall. The cars of three of the lifts were stationed on the ground floor, the fourth seemed to be stuck between the second and third floor - and Hunter could see two human forms moving within. He tapped Blake's arm and pointed upwards.

"I'll take care of those two, you go and find the guy in the men's room, ok?"

The Navy Ranger nodded and dashed off towards the closest 'restroom' sign.

Hunter raised his head again. The two figures in the elevator car had obviously spotted him, for they were now banging their fists against the glass and waiving frantically. Hunter raised his arm in acknowledgement, then took a flying leap and streaked to the third level. Leaning over the balustrade, he could now make out the two inhabitants of the elevator cabin much more clearly, especially since they were both peering up at him with frightened expressions.

They were a tall man Hunter estimated to be in his mid-thirties, with thin, receding hair and a boy of about eight years, hair a shade lighter than the man's, but his similar facial features clearly identifying him as the man's son. Two shopping bags lay forgotten in a corner of the car. The man was shouting something unintelligible, but before Hunter could formulate a calming response, the walls resonated with a shrill shriek of the dinomoth monster outside, followed by a crash. The building shook and the glass elevator swayed precariously. The little boy cried out in fear and threw his arms around his father's waist. Hunter cast the thick steel cable holding the elevator a worried look; it might hold, but then again, it might not...

Hunter estimated it was about a fifty-foot drop to the bottom. Even if the fall didn't kill them, the ensuing shattered glass would at least severely injure them. Hunter scaled the railing, then took a flying leap, landing surefootedly on top of the elevator car. A square escape hatch was built into the ceiling, and it took the Crimson Ranger only one hard yank to open it. Two pale faces were gazing up at him, but the thin-haired man was quick to react; he grabbed the boy around thewaist and lifted him up. The kid's slim form fit easily through the hatch and Hunter pulled him into his arms. The boy's brown eyes were huge with fear and he instinctively threw his arms around Hunter's neck.

"Just hold on, okay, buddy?" Hunter reassured him. "One quick hop and you'll be safe."

A lightning-quick streak, and the boy found himself safely deposited in front of a Victoria's Secret store while the Crimson Ranger went right back to the top of the lift.

The father was a little harder to extricate from the elevator car. Hunter planted both feet squarely on each side of the escape hatch and lowered his Thunderstaff into the opening, instructing the man to hold on while he slowly pulled him upwards. Thankfully, despite his height, the man was quite thin, not weighing much more than Blake, and his head appeared at the hatch only moments later. Hunter bent down, grasped his shoulders and pulled him all the way out when suddenly, the earsplitting noise and resulting shockwave of an explosion outside rocked the elevator once more. The man lost his footing and yelped. Hunter got an arm around the man's waist and clung to the steel cable, but the overhead pulley was now screeching with the strain.

The Crimson Ranger yelled " _Hold on_ ," then pushed off the lift top, still firmly clutching the tall man to him, transforming his leap into a streak. His boots barely left the smooth surface when the pulley's safeties finally disengaged and the elevator plummeted towards the ground. The noise of exploding glass was deafening.

From fifty feet up, Hunter saw the man wince at the sound and sight as they watched from where they had ended up on the third floor landing. The stranger's hands were shaking, fear, amazement and relief all clearly written on his pale face. "My god!"

Letting out a relieved sigh of his own, Hunter turned to the tall man. "Well, it sounds like the monster outside's been taken care of, but we should still get out of here pretty fast. For all I know, the whole building might not be structurally safe anymore."

On the ground floor, they met up with the Navy Ranger, who was half-dragging an elderly man behind him and together, the little group made their way towards the ruined mall doors.

Outside, acrid smoke greeted them. The Storm Megazord was standing over a black pile of smoldering metal, and bits and pieces of the dino-monster were strewn around the plaza.

Hunter kicked a warped piece of metal aside, then gave the 'thumbs up' sign to the waiting Storm Megazord before he turned to father and son.

"Well, looks like you're safe to go from here."

The tall man stepped forward and offered his hand to the Crimson Ranger, gratitude written all over his face. "You've saved our lives, I don't know how to thank you..."

"Yeah, thank you, Mr. Ranger," the little boy chimed in.

With an unseen grin at their outpouring of gratefulness, Hunter shook the offered hand, then ruffled the boy's hair. "Just doing my job, buddy."

The father disagreed. "No, this isn't just a job," he insisted. "You guys have saved this town so many times since these monster invasions began. You are definitely heroes, all of you." He inclined his head towards the Megazord in emphasis while Hunter nodded in awkward appreciation at the praise.

"Thank you. I'm just glad we could help." He jabbed his thumb at his own immobile battle machine. "I should get going, help with the clean-up here..."

He nodded in farewell, but before he could turn away, the tall stranger dug into his jacket pocket and produced a small business card which he held out to the Crimson Ranger.

"Here, take this," he said. "I'm a doctor at BBH General Hospital. If there's ever anything I can do for you or anyone on your team, call me. Please."

Hunter hesitated, and the stranger caught the pause. "You can count on my discretion," he added in a low voice.

Hunter took the card, and nodded once more while from several different directions, curious spectators began to pour into the plaza, some of them picking up scarred and twisted pieces of metal as souvenirs, others just gawking at the Power Rangers and their mighty battle robots.

Two young men among the crowd, however, were neither out for mementos nor a quick glimpse at the multi-colored heroes. Instead they remained in the background, studying the Crimson and Navy Rangers intently as they made their way towards their Zords.

"So whaddaya think, _meng_?" the shorter, Hispanic boy mumbled.

His companion, an only slightly taller Asian boy with acne-scarred cheeks frowned at the overly chummy moniker before he shrugged. "Hard to say. I would have to actually see them fight to be sure, but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen anymore today." He let out a frustrated sigh while his partner frowned.

"That's no good, man. Julio's getting impatient. What are we gonna tell him, huh?"

"You think I don't know that?" the Asian boy hissed. "But there's no way for me to tell anything just from the way they walk! We'll just have to wait until the next monster attack and hope to see some actual hand-to-hand combat."

He elbowed the shorter boy and jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. "Come on, let's go 'n report to Julio that there's nothing to report yet."

And with a last look at the two Thunder Rangers, the teenagers melted into the shadows of two adjoining buildings.


	2. Chapter 2

By reason of its underground location, one would expect Ninja Ops to be cold, especially in December.

The two half-dressed occupants of Cam Watanabe's room, however, did not waste a thought on the chilly temperatures of their subterranean headquarters. Their minds were otherwise occupied and their bodies were pressed close enough to share all the heat they were generating between them, which presently was quite a bit.

It had started out as an offer by Cam to help Hunter with his Chemistry homework, but the study session had quickly turned into hands-on exercises of a different kind.

Hunter was nipping at Cam's nipple, causing the samurai to draw a sharp breath.

"Aw, did I hurt you?" the blond ninja asked, grinning mischievously. "Do you want me to stop?"

"You stop and I'll put you on Zord Bay cleaning duty for the rest of the year," came the hoarse reply.

Hunter chuckled. "I didn't know we had a rank system around here."

"It's unofficial," Cam managed to mutter before one more playful nip from Hunter elicited another deep groan from the depths of his throat.

The groan, however, was swallowed up by the sudden blaring of the monster alarm from the command center's supercomputer.

Hunter's head fell dejectedly onto Cam's chest. "There ought to be a law against monster attacks on the weekends. These hours are killing me."

"Just trying to walk right now is going to kill _me_ ," Cam replied with the same abject tone in his voice.

" _You're_ talking!" Reluctantly, Hunter pulled himself off his boyfriend, then reached out and offered Cam a hand up. "Oh well, I get to see you in tight green Spandex, I guess that makes up for it."

Cam grinned and accepted the offered hand. Once on his feet, he pulled his blond partner into a quick hug and planted a last kiss onto his lips.

"This is just postponed, not cancelled, you hear?"

"Definitely."

With an affectionate pat on Hunter's butt, Cam dashed off in the direction of his computer, whereas Hunter hung back, taking his time in putting his shirt back on while he cast an unseen smile after his boyfriend. The hug and kiss, not to mention the pat on the rear had surprised Hunter, for the samurai was usually not overly physical.

Cam was still somewhat of an enigma to Hunter – as Hunter doubtlessly was to Cam. But they were getting to know each other better, and Hunter liked what he was learning.

They had come quite a way since their fateful first kiss in Ninja Ops' practice room a few months ago, and once Cam got over his first startled amazement, they had started out with careful, undemanding kisses, no touching involved. Things had progressed since then and Cam had been putting more attitude, as well as tongue action, into his kisses lately.

Or, more precisely, since they had received the approval of the two people who mattered most – Sensei and Blake.

It hadn't always been this way, though. They had gone through some rough times, especially after Blake and Hunter had moved from Ninja Ops back to Blue Bay Harbor and into their own apartment. _(( See: "I Try"))_

Hunter had noticed a change in Cam almost immediately afterwards, but it hadn't been anything tangible; nothing as clear-cut as an argument or anything like this. It was more of a gradual emotional retreat on Cam's part and at first Hunter had thought it was a fear of their increasing physical relationship. He still remembered Cam's reaction at his confrontation.

" _Is sex with a man really scaring you that much, Cam?"_

Cam had looked at him with a half-startled, half-exasperated expression. "You just don't get it, do you, Hunter?" the samurai had snapped. "It's not your body, it's _you_!"

At Hunter confused look, he had elaborated. "I'm not exactly surrounded by a horde of loving family members; my mother died so long ago that I don't even remember her, my uncle is the very man we're trying to keep from taking over the world and my father is ten inches tall with fur! If something like this, or worse, would happen to you…I don't know what I would do."

Hunter had been at a temporary loss for words, but he could practically feel Cam drawing in on himself before he heard the technician utter, "Maybe it's for the better that we aren't that close to each other every day."

It had hurt, but there had been nothing Hunter could do about Cam's decision. Luckily, the physical separation had ended up having a much different effect on Cam; it got him thinking until finally, the samurai's heart had triumphed over his fears and Cam had called him home.

They had resumed their relationship with renewed vigor, but Hunter was still waiting for Cam to be ready for more. He would wait as long as it took, for he was intensely aware of the fragility of their relationship. If he rushed Cam, he could expect nothing but retreat from the samurai, and that was something Hunter didn't dare risk. Their relationship was too important to him, so for now he could wait – and savor whatever Cam was willing to give.

Donning his crimson pullover, he hurried from the room and into the command center where Cam was already pulling up the source of the disturbance on the supercomputer's huge screen.

It turned out to be Marah and Kapri, raiding yet another _shopping center_. Hunter leaned over Cam's shoulder.

"Piece of cake," he said, watching the sisters strut across the screen. "We won't even need the zords for this."

He got into morphing position while Cam contacted the rest of the team and transmitted the sisters' position before he joined his partner in the middle of the room.

"Thunder Storm,"

"Samurai Storm,"

"RANGERFORM!"

Hunter made sure Cam stayed a few steps ahead of him as they hurried out of Ninja Ops, grinning behind his visor as he caught a few of those anticipated eyefuls of his partner's shapely, green posterior.

 

_**A battle observed…** _

The six Power Rangers arrived at the shopping center just in time to see Kapri engaged in a tug-of-war with a Salvation Army Santa Claus over the contents of his collection box.

"Hey, Flamingo," Shane called out. "What do you think you're doing?"

Both Kapri and Salvation Santa froze in their tugging, and the pink-haired girl's expression changed to one of indignation as she turned to Marah for confirmation. "Oh no, he did _not_ just call me Flamingo, did he?"

Marah just shrugged. "Well, you kinda do look like one, you know, with the hair and all…" She evaded her sister's venomous glare by turning towards the Rangers.

"Duh, what does it look like we're doing? _Christmas shopping_!"

Cam crossed his arms. "Now see, there's a difference between Christmas shopping and Christmas robbing."

"Not to us," Marah declared.

Behind his visor, Cam rolled his eyes while Dustin pointed at the frightened charity worker. "I can't believe that you two would stoop so low as to steal Salvation Army donations!"

At that, Kapri suddenly smirked. "We're not stealing – we're just acquiring donations for our very own charity we've established - the _'poor evil aliens oppressed by the Power Rangers'_ fund," the pink-haired girl informed them. "Uncle is the CEO and I am the Treasurer." To emphasize her point, she gave Santa's collection box a fierce tug, finally yanking it out of the poor man's hands.

Marah looked puzzled. "Wait a minute, I didn't know anything about a fund like that," she whined. "I wanna have a position, too!"

Kapri rolled her eyes before she fixed her sister with an innocent smile. "You can be the head bookkeeper," she said, her face guileless. "Since you're so smart."

The sarcasm went completely over Marah's head. "Oh, goodie!" she squealed, clapping her hands.

Now not only her sister, but all six Power Rangers were shaking their heads in unison.

Shane took a step forward and pointed his ninja sword at Kapri. "Not that I believe a word of what you're saying, but if you really wanted to collect money for charity, you might want to try it the _legal_ way…" the Red Ranger pointed to the Salvation Army Santa. "Like he does."

Kapri cast the frightened man next to her a disdainful look. "No way! That would be so… _righteous_." She wrinkled her nose at that word.

Her sister's facial expression was nearly identical. "Ew! That would, like, so ruin our reputation!"

Kapri tucked the box under her arm and raised her other hand, apparently deeming their conversation finished. She depressed a button on the small device she was holding, and a second later, a dozen kelzaks materialized around the evil sisters.

"Get them!" the two girls screeched in chorus. The Rangers drew their swords and Thunderstaffs and a moment later, the plaza turned into a kaleidoscope of swirling colors and clanging arms.

The three black-clad figures watching the spectacle from the rooftop of a neighboring building went completely unnoticed.

After a minute of silent surveillance, the oldest man of the group addressed the Asian teenager. "Well?"

The boy cast a look at his leader. In his thirties, tall, broad-shouldered and imposing, even in his crouched position, the Mexican had been his 'employer' for the past year, but the teenager still had to suppress a shiver every time those cold brown eyes stared at him. Julio Morales was no one to be messed with – or lied to.

"The red, yellow and blue ones are a definite yes. I recognize their fighting style. As a matter of fact, the blue one is a Water ninja for sure."

"And the others?"

Now the boy grew more hesitant. "The green one's style is similar, but not quite the same, so I dunno where he fits in. As for the navy and crimson ones…definitely from a different school."

Morales nodded curtly. "Then we will focus on Red, Yellow or Blue." He dug into a pocket of his coat, producing a bundle wrapped in black cloth which he thrust at the pockmarked boy. The boy pulled back the cloth, and the small dart gun that was revealed would have looked like a toy to him if he hadn't known better.

"You know what to do," Julio said. "It's already loaded with the special dart. Report to me once you're finished." The Mexican turned as if to go, but paused suddenly. "And Jared…" His hard eyes fixed once again on the teenager. "You better not miss. You can't afford any more screw-ups."

The Asian boy lowered his eyes demurely. "Yes, Sir. I mean…no, Sir, I won't miss."

He kept his eyes on the ground until Julio had disappeared through the rooftop door that led into the building's stairway. Then he looked back down onto the ongoing battle below and nudged his companion.

"Gotta get closer to them. C'mon."

 

_**Danger from the shadows…** _

Twelve against six were quite unfortunate odds – for the kelzaks. The Power Rangers proved that point by beating up, knocking out and generally wiping the floor with Lothor's goons in near record time.

Once the plaza was littered with moaning and doubled-over drones, the Rangers turned their attention back to Lothor's nieces – who were by now looking distinctly worried.

"Well, that was a nice warm-up exercise," Hunter jeered. "Where's the rest?"

Marah jabbed Kapri in the side. "You got the PAM," she hissed. "Get some more!"

"Can't," the pink-haired girl whispered back. "Don't you remember? Uncle cut our quota to twelve a day, because we've been getting so many of them trashed." She glowered at the Rangers team. "Mostly by _them_."

"Great. Now what?" Marah wanted to know. "Same thing as always?"

Kapri nodded. "Yep. Retreat." She stuck her chin out, trying to look as condescending as possible. "This is getting boring," she exclaimed loud enough for the Rangers to hear. "We're outta here." She raised her remote control to teleport out.

"But not with that!" Shane drew his arm back, throwing his ninja sword like a spear. It struck the collection box under Kapri's arm with enough force to make Lothor's niece squeal with surprise and anger. The box clattered to the ground at the exact same time the flash of light from the transporter beam sucked the two sisters and their drones up into the air.

Their departure was accompanied by cheers and claps from the scattered spectators as well as the Salvation Army Santa, who was hurrying towards them with a huge grin on his face, clutching his recovered box. He thanked them profusely and the Rangers accepted his gratitude with the proper modesty before they readied themselves to head out. Suddenly, Tori's helmeted head turned towards the mall's entrance. "You know...now that Shoppazilla pretty much canned any opportunities for Christmas shopping at the Southside mall, we should do it here."

Dustin rolled his shoulders. "I'm game. That little kelzak-bowling workout just now got me energized enough to keep up with you through the mall." He turned to the rest of the team. "What about you guys?" He received affirmative nods all around.

"Sure."

"Got nothing better to do."

"Yeah, let's do some shopping, baby!"

Cam pointed towards a warehouse a bit further down the street. "Let's go change behind that building and then we can hit the shops."

For the sake of appearance, the team streaked out of the plaza and off into the distance - only to double-back and end up in the murky alley behind the warehouse.

They had not noticed the two black-clad teenagers hovering at the periphery of the plaza, close enough to overhear the Rangers' plans. Consequently, the teens were ready and in position behind a parked van across the street from the warehouse, waiting for the demorphed Rangers to emerge.

The Asian boy, Jared, was squinting at the alleyway, gun at the ready, when his friend spoke up. "Yo, _meng_ , I was just thinking...when they come out from there, they're obviously not gonna be in their suits anymore, so how do we know who's Red, Yellow or Blue?"

Jared frowned. "We make an educated guess," he said, trying to sound more confident than he felt. He had been pondering the same question and was basically hoping that the three Rangers who were obviously Wind ninjas were adhering to the trend that ran with most of the students of that academy, namely a near-obsession with their respective elemental colors. It was a trend Jared had never followed. But even if they didn't, Jared had one more advantage at his disposal - he knew he would be able to sense a fellow Water ninja when he saw him or her.

He had been stunned when, a few months ago, he had watched a battle between the Power Rangers and a monster on the evening news and had realized that some of the Rangers exhibited the fighting styles of the Wind Ninja Academy. That surprise effect had subsided quickly, however, replaced by the increasingly promising idea to use his newfound knowledge to rectify the mess he had inadvertently gotten himself into when he left a bag his boss Julio had placed into his care in his dorm room at the Wind Academy. The next day, when he had returned to retrieve it, he had walked through the holographic portal to find not only all the students and teachers, but also every building - including the dormitory - gone.

After the first shock over this incredible disappearance had worn off, it was replaced by a clump of fear that settled firmly in his gut. _The bag!_

Julio was a generous employer, and Jared never asked about the contents of the bags and envelopes the Mexican had him deliver all over Blue Bay Harbor, but judging from the dubious establishments and questionable characters he made his drop-offs to, he was sure that it wasn't Meals-On-Wheels he was delivering. Unless they were gourmet meals laced with caviar and Dom Perignon, for the envelopes he was receiving in exchange for his bags were always generously stuffed.

No, Jared didn't fool himself about the errands he was running for Julio Morales - whom the Blue Bay Harbor police department had dubbed "Ecstasy Julio", even though no one had so far been able to link him to the synthetic club-scene drugs that made up his nickname.

He simply didn't care; the only thing he _did_ care about was the commission he received from every delivery. It was more than enough to live comfortably on, and the only reason he still kept his legal part-time job at the video store was for deception. After all, he had to tell his parents _some_ reason he was gone so often.

Julio had been furious about the lost bag and had been on Jared's case almost daily to get it back, no matter how. He was unfazed by Jared's recount of the vanished academy; he either didn't believe him – no one else in Julio's gang was a Wind ninja and could confirm the story - or didn't care about the extraordinary circumstances. Julio wanted his bag back, and when he told Jared about the value of its contents and how long it would take the boy to work off the accrued debt, Jared had almost fainted.

Consequently, the realization that some of the members of the Power Rangers team were Wind ninjas was the lifeline he desperately needed. Here were some people who might know what happened to the school – and most importantly, his room with the hidden bag.

He had reported his findings to Julio immediately, together with the suggestion of abducting and torturing one of the Rangers for information of the school's whereabouts, but Julio had chastised him for coming up with such a foolish plan.

" _And just how do you propose we do that, you moron? You think we can just walk up to them in the middle of a monster fight and snatch one of them without the other ones handing us our butts for it? And even if we did manage to grab one of them, do you really think torture would do any good? They're superheroes! They've got powers we can only dream of, and you think we would be able to intimidate them into telling us anything? Madre de dios, Jared, you're an idiot!"_

Julio had had a different idea, however, and that plan was what found Jared crouched behind the van holding the gun loaded with the specially prepared dart, nervously watching the alleyway for any signs of the Rangers/ninjas.

Six teenagers, five guys and one girl, emerged from the alley only a minute later. Chatting happily, they slowly strolled down the sidewalk in the direction of the mall – and their color-coded choices of clothing left no question as to who controlled which element. The blonde girl in the light blue jeans and turquoise sweatshirt even looked vaguely familiar. Jared raised the gun, aiming at the Water ninja's back – and froze.

"Whoa!"

The Hispanic boy saw the look of surprise on his companion's face. "What?" he whispered urgently.

"The guy in the green shirt – that's Cam Watanabe!"

"Watanabe?" The Hispanic boy's brows furrowed, but then his eyes suddenly went wide with excitement. "The head teacher's son, right?"

Jared nodded. Manuel was not a ninja, but Jared had told him enough about the secret ninja academy he attended that the name had registered with the other boy.

"Hit _him,_ meng!" Manuel was now visibly jazzed. "He's a much better target than just any ol' ninja. Come on, man, do it!"

"All right, all right," the Asian boy whispered fiercely and raised the dart gun.


	3. Chapter 3

"So what're you going to get for your dad, Cam?" Dustin was asking, but it was Shane who answered.

"Man, there's tons of stuff for Sensei – a new cage, a squeaky toy, maybe one of those clear plastic exercise balls. He can run around the entire command room in it…"

Laughing, the Air ninja dodged Tori's swipe aimed for his head, but he couldn't escape Cam's mock glare. "Just kiddin'!"

"I was thinking more like a new robe," Cam said. "Or maybe a book on new and improved meditative techniques. With all of you around, Dad needs all the inner peace he can get… _OUCH_!"

Hunter was closest to Cam and he instinctively reached out, catching the samurai's arm as he stumbled and went down on one knee, clawing at his back. True to their training, the others instantly went into defensive positions, forming a protective ring around Cam and Hunter. Perplexed, the Crimson Ranger followed Cam's fingers with his eyes as they tried to reach up higher on his back – until he spotted the small black object stuck just beneath the technician's right shoulder blade.

"Hold up, Cam, I got it," he said before he reached out and swiftly pulled the object from his boyfriend's flesh. Cam hissed.

The three Wind ninjas and Blake were hovering around the two crouched Rangers, their heads swiveling in all directions.

"Did anybody see something?" Shane barked.

"I don't know. I thought I saw movement when I was turning towards Cam, but it was right at the edge of my vision and it was only for like a tenth of a second or so," Dustin replied, almost apologetic. He pointed towards a gray van parked at the opposite side of the street. "I think it might've come from somewhere over there."

The Winds took off in a sprint while Blake stayed in his guarding position. He glanced down to find both Hunter and Cam staring at what looked like the black steel tip of a dart. Half a dart, actually, for it was missing a regular dart's back part, the usually colorful flight piece.

He looked between his brother and his teammate and caught Hunter's eye. The question in those blue orbs was clear to him. _Poison_?

Both Thunder ninjas cast a long, scrutinizing look at the Green Ranger, but apart from complete bewilderment, Cam's face did not exhibit any signs of impending poisoning.

Shane, Dustin and Tori returned from their inspection across the street, empty-handed.

"We checked the entire immediate area." Shane shook his head, scowling. "There's no one in sight."

"I don't get it," Tori wondered aloud. "How could whoever did this have just _disappeared_ so fast?"

Grave, worried looks were the only replies. Hunter looked at Cam.

"How do you feel?"

"Fine." Cam rolled his right shoulder. "The area where that dart hit still hurts, but otherwise…fine."

Shane reached down, grabbing Cam's other arm and helping him to his feet. "That's good, but I think we should still get you back to Ops right away. Just to be safe."

No one disagreed with his suggestion.

 

**_Complacence…_ **

Jared was very pleased with himself. His aim had been perfect, their getaway quick and smooth. The Rangers couldn't have spotted him streak away. He had practiced streaking with Manuel in tow a dozen times, and today it had paid off.

Now all they had to do was sit back and wait a few days, or however long it took, until the next phase of the plan could be implemented. He hoped it wasn't too long a wait; it mainly depended on when the Rangers' next monster battle took place.

Grinning, Jared leaned back into the soft leather couch of Julio's office. As he closed his eyes for a well-deserved nap, he dared - for the first time in months - to feel hopeful.

 

_**Speculations…** _

"For the umpteenth time, guys, I feel fine," Cam said and from his tone of voice the Wind and Thunder ninjas could tell that his patience was wearing thin. It had been several hours since the mysterious attack. Hunter had disinfected the small wound on Cam's shoulder and so far Cam was still not showing any symptoms of poisoning, or anything else for that matter. Nevertheless, the team and Sensei remained skeptical. Slumped around the command table, they had done much speculating about the incident, yet all it yielded was an ever-growing pile of unanswered questions.

"So do you guys think this was an accident or intentional?" Dustin wondered.

"Well, since there weren't any pubs around with the doors open while someone inside missed the dart board big time, I think we can safely rule out the _accidental_ part," Tori concluded.

"There's also the question of _Why Cam_?" Hunter cut in. "Or maybe we should ask ourselves whether they were actually targeting just some random guy on the street, or Cam Watanabe - or the Green Samurai Ranger?"

The team traded apprehensive looks. "You think whoever did this might know our identities?" Blake asked.

Hunter shrugged. "It's something we might have to worry about."

Shane stared at the dart on the table. "Maybe we should have reported this to the police."

"Wouldn't have done any good." Cam shook his head. "The guy who threw that dart was long gone a few seconds after the attack, so there wasn't anything the police could have done anyways. And to file a report against 'unknown' would only have been a waste of time."

"Think this could have been Lothor's doing?" Tori directed the question at no one in particular and skeptical glances passed between the ninjas.

"I don't know," Cam said. "This isn't…this doesn't fit his style."

"And what about a motive?" Shane wanted to know. "I mean…just this coward-ass attack from behind without any kind of note?" The Red Ranger cast a sidelong look at his teacher for the inadvertent curse word. "And there hasn't been one, unless we've overlooked it, but I don't think we did."

Puzzled silence was the general reply.

"Don't you have some computer gadget-thingy that could analyze the dart, Cam?" Dustin inquired. "Something that could check what was on that dart or whether there even was anything on it at all."

"This isn't the CSI crime lab, Dustin," Cam replied. "The Supercomputer isn't programmed for that kind of stuff."

Sensei spoke up for the first time. "Rangers, whatever the reason or the people behind this attack may be, we must assume that we have a very real enemy lurking in the shadows. And I agree with Cam – this does not feel like an attack initiated by Lothor. My brother is evil, yes, but he has never resorted to such a dastardly sneak attack so far." He looked around his small group of ninjas. "I am as concerned as you are about this incident, but at this point I believe all we can do is to be particularly alert about our surroundings outside of Ninja Ops. If someone truly has learned your real identities, you must be on your guard towards any strangers in your immediate environment from now on. Stay in constant touch with each other, be extra careful about using your special abilities and use added precautions when coming to Ninja Ops to avoid being tracked." The tiny teacher turned to his son. "Cam, I believe you should stay out of sight for a while, just in case. Remain in Ninja Ops where I can monitor your well-being."

Cam opened his mouth to protest, but even in guinea pig form, his father radiated enough authority to stifle any objections. So instead, Cam traded a glum look with the rest of the team before he said, "All right, Dad."

"So the ball is in the enemy's court and all we can do is wait until they make a move," Hunter concluded grimly.

"I'm afraid so, Hunter." Sensei inclined his head in acknowledgement. "Now - it is getting late and you should be returning to your homes, Rangers, for you all have school tomorrow. Please keep in mind the precautions we discussed. We will see you here tomorrow afternoon for training."

Obediently yet reluctantly, the ninjas said their good-byes and filed out of their headquarters. Hunter caught Cam's eyes and mouthed _Call Me_ before he climbed the stone steps.

When they were alone, Sensei turned to his son. "How are you really feeling, Cam?"

Cam had expected that question. "Dad, I wasn't pretending when I said I feel fine." The samurai came around the command center table and plopped onto a cushion to be at eye level with his father. "That doesn't mean that I'm not worried about this whole thing, though. I mean, what if there was a slow-acting poison on there?" He picked the dart off the table and twirled it between his thumb and index finger. "But then again, maybe it was just a prank, just some dumb kids who were bored and up to no good and all we're doing right now is blowing this entire thing way out of proportion. Worrying for nothing."

From the silent look Sensei was giving him he knew his dad didn't buy this explanation. Cam couldn't blame him; he didn't buy it, either. For a while, father and son sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts and worries until Cam grew too restless to remain seated. Sensei Watanabe watched his son as he began to pace back and forth before the table. "I just feel like there has to be something I should do, Dad." He ran a hand through his hair. "Some clue I should be investigating… _something_!"

"You cannot pursue an unseen enemy, Cam," Sensei countered. "Without at least some solid lead to follow, you would only be wasting your time."

"Yeah, I know," Cam conceded. "But I can't just sit here and do nothing." He stopped his pacing, sighed and fixed his gaze onto the computer set-up across the room. "Well, since there seems to be nothing I can check up on out there, the least thing I _can_ do is to take some extra precautions for in here and make sure we're prepared for any eventuality." With determined steps he crossed the room and took his customary seat in front of the computer console. Sensei joined him.

"What do you have in mind, son?"

With a few key strokes, Cam brought up a screen full of schematics and lines of code. "First I'm going to reinforce the holographic entrance, make sure _no one_ other than the Rangers can get through, then I'll work on enhancing the Wind and Thunder morphers' tracking signals and link them to the computer's surveillance program. That way we'll be notified at the first sign of trouble for any of them. And while I'm at it, it won't hurt to run those overdue diagnostics on the Zords right now and implement a few upgrades I've been meaning to install, keep them all in top condition, just in case…" Cam's fingers were flying across the keyboard and Sensei knew his son was by now mostly talking to himself. He watched for another minute, then retreated soundlessly. Cam had made sure he would be keeping himself busy for quite some time now and that was fine with Kanoi; as long as it kept his son's attention away from the unnerving attack.

He settled on the tiny bench of his miniature meditation pagoda. Time to reclaim his own inner peace.

 

_**Distractions…** _

Cam was in his element, his mind working in perfect harmony with the highly sophisticated machine before him. He was on familiar and comfortable territory, focused and productive, and for a while he was able to forget about the time, his surroundings - and even the very reason that had started this huge workload in the first place.

It wasn't until every one of his projects was completed that he allowed himself a break and a snack. On the way back from the kitchenette, his eyes fell onto the clock and Cam wasn't surprised to see it show three o'clock in the morning. With a start he realized that he had completely forgotten to call Hunter. ' _Way too late for that now.'_

He checked on his father, but Sensei was sleeping soundly in his habitat. Cam stretched and yawned. ' _No use staying up any longer…'_

In his room, he changed for bed, then slid under the covers. According to the neon display of his bedside clock, it was three-ten a.m.

He closed his eyes, ready for sleep, but his mind decided to replay the events of the day instead. The memory of his earlier 'chemistry demonstration' with Hunter brought a smile to his face, but soon he found himself brooding over the attack yet again. He took comfort in the fact, however, that he still neither showed any symptoms nor felt 'off' in any way.

By four-nineteen a.m. he seriously considered meditating to finally stop the incessant flow of thoughts from invading his head.

By five-twenty-three a.m. he resigned himself to the fact that peaceful slumber would not be happening today. ' _Probably still too worked up from everything that happened yesterday…'_

With a sigh he rose and, in sweatpants and t-shirt, padded into the kitchen to heat up some water for tea and prepare a very early breakfast. He wasn't worried about the missed sleep – it had happened before, mainly before major tests in college or after particularly tough monster battles that left the Zords in dire need for immediate repairs.

He could always make up for it with a nap later on.

 

_**Getting worried…** _

Theory and practice, however, proved to be as different as night and day. By the time the Winds and Thunders arrived for afternoon practice, Cam had already tried to nap several times. Tired as he was, however, sleep had continued to elude him. Whether in his room or on the command center's couch, no matter how long he remained still with his eyes doggedly closed, his brain simply hadn't shut down far enough for sleep. Consequently, he was grouchy and short-tempered, but the ninjas were too relieved to see their teammate still alive and kicking to take offense.

He opted out of the training session, and waved it off when Hunter tried to inquire further into his failed attempts to sleep, blaming it yet again on the disquieting events of the previous day.

After ninja training, Dustin had to head back into the city for his shift at Storm Chargers. Tori offered to drive and Shane came along in hopes of convincing Kelly to let him watch the Tony Hawk's SuperSkater Special on her TV in the store's alcove.

Only Hunter and Blake remained at Ninja Ops. It was clear that the Bradleys were hovering, troubled by Cam's sleepless condition.

"You know, I could lend you my English grammar textbook," Blake offered with a forced grin. "It never fails to put _me_ to sleep in five minutes flat."

"I can vouch for that," Hunter confirmed. "Sometimes he doesn't even make it _five_ minutes."

Cam barely cracked a half-smile. "Thanks for the offer, Blake, but I've tried just about everything short of sleeping pills to get some sleep, and nothing's worked. Frankly, I'm getting a little worried."

"Do you want me to stay tonight?" Hunter asked and Cam met his eyes. Normally, the Crimson Ranger would have followed up on that inquiry with anything from a hopeful expression to downright puppy eyes, but right now all Cam saw in those blue orbs was concern. He considered the offer for a moment, but then declined. "No, it's okay. I'm so bone tired, I'm probably going to hit the sack right after you guys leave. I've been up the better part of two days; there's no logical reason why I _shouldn't_ fall asleep tonight, just from sheer exhaustion."

Hunter regarded him thoughtfully for another moment before he nodded. "All right, but if it doesn't work, call me this time, all right?"

Cam assured him he would.

"Dad is going to show me this Zen meditation technique that's supposed to be very effective in inducing sleep." The samurai was trying to sound reassuring, as much for Hunter's sake as for his own. "Hopefully that's going to do the trick."

The Bradley brothers looked hesitant and unconvinced, but Hunter nevertheless nodded resolutely. "Yeah, let's hope so."

One quick and one longer hug, and then the two Thunder ninjas were retreating up the stairs, leaving Cam and Kanoi to prepare themselves for Sensei's Zen exercise.

As Cam settled himself into the lotus position, he sighed inwardly; as much as he would have liked Hunter to stay, he needed to address his current, highly inconvenient situation first - and having his partner present would only have been a distraction.

Sensei hopped onto Cam's shoulder, and for the better part of the next hour, the older Watanabe guided his son through the process of methodically relaxing first the different parts of his body, then his mind. Fortunately, they had the foresight to conduct the exercise in Cam's room right next to his bed, for at the conclusion of it, Cam's limbs had the consistency of JELL-O. He barely had the strength left to get off the floor and onto the bed. The last thing he saw was the LED display of his alarm clock. It read ten p.m.

_Any minute now…_

All his life, Cam had regarded sleep as nothing more than an unfortunate necessity; time wasted that could be spent being productive. Now he wanted nothing else than to spend the next twenty-four hours engaged in just this 'unfortunate necessity'.

He snuggled deeper into his comforter and cracked one eyelid at the clock. Ten-thirty.

_Any moment now…_

At eleven-fifty, ready to cry, Cam had to admit defeat yet again.

By now he was more than just unsettled about his continuing inability to sleep, for he was more than just tired; fatigue had settled into every bone of his body. By all means, he should have been out cold a minute after his head had hit the pillow, especially after his dad's meditative exercise. Yet here he was staring at the bedside clock almost two hours after lying down.

Something was clearly wrong, and Cam didn't need to think twice about the reason for it.

The dart.

 

**_A call for help…_ **

The 'Ride of the Valkyries' ringtone of Hunter's cell phone had the Crimson Ranger bolting upright in bed. His hand was already reaching for the phone before his brain even had the chance to throw off the fog of sleep. "… _Hullo_?"

"Hey," Cam's voice was quiet and subdued.

"Cam!" Hunter glanced at his alarm clock display. It was three minutes to five a.m. That, combined with his partner's dejected tone of voice, immediately had him assume the worst. He asked anyways. "Did you sleep?"

"No," came the gloomy reply. "Dad and I did our joint meditation thing, but it obviously didn't work; I haven't slept for a single minute yet."

Frustrated and worried, Hunter ran a hand through his mop of hair. "Crap. Did you go ahead and try a sleeping pill, then?"

"Two. The first one at around midnight, the second one about two hours ago."

"Take another one. Maybe they aren't strong enough…"

"Hunter, this was the most potent over-the-counter stuff I could find. I even checked with the pharmacist yesterday before I bought them."

Seriously concerned now, Hunter sat at the edge of the bed and, with the phone still to his ear, began to pull on his jeans. "I'm coming over. We'll figure something out together, okay?"

The fact that Cam wasn't even protesting only added to the clump of ice already assembling in the Thunder Ranger's stomach.

 

_**Countermeasures…** _

It only took a few minutes for Hunter to streak to Ninja Ops. He was greeted by a dismal Cam and a somber Sensei, both sipping tea on the couch. A third steaming cup stood on the command table in front of them.

Cam was beginning to show the effects of his insomnia; Grey-faced, with dark rings under his eyes, he practically radiated exhaustion. The Green and Crimson Rangers' eyes met and suddenly Hunter _knew_. "It's the dart, isn't it?" he said gravelly. "Whatever it was that was on it is keeping you awake."

Cam simply nodded his head in affirmation.

Hunter mumbled a curse under his breath, seized the tea mug and slumped down next to Cam on the couch.

"You need to go to the hospital," he said determinedly. "Get a tox screen or whatever that's called."

Cam, however, did not share his partner's opinion. "First of all, my 'Power Ranger Tech Support' position didn't come with a health benefits plan," he retorted while he transferred a teaspoon of tea from his mug into his father's empty miniature cup. "And secondly, if I get my blood drawn, all that's going to end up happening is that the doctors would notice my abnormal blood chemistry due to my ninja healing powers and that's only going to cause all kinds of uncomfortable questions." The samurai resolutely shook his head. "No. A hospital trip would be the last resort."

Somewhat unexpectedly, Sensei came to Cam's aid. "Not to mention Cam's natural aversion to hospitals in the first place," the tiny teacher added.

Hunter let out an audible sigh and brought the tea mug to his mouth. Sipping the hot beverage, he fixed his partner and his teacher with a look that clearly said _'Now what?'_

Cam took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose before he said, "Dad and I are going to try to combine our ninja healing powers to see if we can purge whatever it is that might be inside me from my system before I try to lie down again."

"First you need to know what it _is_ that's inside your body before you can try to purge it," Hunter pointed out and from the look Cam shot him he could see that he had hit a nerve. He decided to push the issue. "Look, if you don't want to get any blood tests done, fine. But then you should at least have some tests run on the dart. Find out what substance it was obviously coated with. I'm sure there are a few labs in Blue Bay Harbor that do those kinds of tests for a price. Once we know what it is, we might be able to figure out what medication can counter the effects."

Cam and Sensei traded a thoughtful look and Cam took one more sip of his tea before he finally nodded. "All right. It's worth a try."


	4. Chapter 4

Meditech Laboratories opened at nine. By the time a white-coated lab assistant unlocked the front door for the day, Cam and Hunter were already sitting at the curb, waiting. The technician frowned at the sight of Cam; with his pallid skin and bags under his eyes, he probably looked like a drug addict to her. Hunter ignored the woman's stony gaze and instead inquired how to go about getting some _equipment_ tested for traces of an unknown substance.

A few minutes later, they were met by one of the laboratory's chief technicians. The price for a 'private analysis' was hefty, but they agreed to it without complaint. According to the man, it could take anywhere from one to three hours for the results to be in, so Cam and Hunter settled down for a long wait in the lab's waiting room.

When the technician entered the waiting room two hours later, Hunter literally bolted from his chair.

The news wasn't good. With an apologetic expression, the lab assistant said, "I'm sorry, gentlemen, but the results came back inconclusive. We ran the test twice, but the results were the same. There was definitely _something_ on that dart, but the little bit of substance left was already decayed too much to analyze." Seeing the crestfallen expression on the two young men's faces before him, the technician sighed. "I'm sorry," he repeated before he handed Hunter back the ziplock bag with the dart and retreated.

 

_**Setbacks…** _

Cam and Hunter had no time to dwell on the depressing events. Almost as soon as they stepped back into Ninja Ops, the computer's monster alarm sounded through the subterranean chamber. Lothor, intent on just a little more pre-Christmas destruction, had sent another one of his creations into downtown Blue Bay Harbor. This time it was a cross between Terramole and Toxipod. Hunter snorted derisively.

"Great. Now Lothor's recycling his old freaks."

"Well, let's send them back to the intergalactic junk yard where they belong," Cam said. He reached up to touch his amulet, but Hunter put his hand over his.

"Cam, I think you should sit this one out."

Cam frowned. "I refuse to be put on the sidelines by this!" he exclaimed hotly.

"You're not going to be on the sidelines," Hunter countered. "You're going to be exactly where we need you most. Right there." He pointed to the computer. Cam mumbled something unintelligible, but plopped back down into his desk chair to contact Blake and the Winds.

Hunter cast a worried look at the back of his partner's head, but covered it with a half-hearted smile and an affectionate squeezed of his shoulder when Cam looked up. Then he morphed and streaked out the door to join his teammates for the battle.

 

_**Encounters…** _

Up against five Power Rangers with several days' worth of frustrated energy stored up inside them, Lothor's combined creation stood not a snowball's chance in hell. The punch-, kick- and sword-slash assault lasted a total of five minutes and concluded with the Rangers turning their backs just before the monster exploded in a fireball of molten orange.

They were just about to turn back around to survey their work when a high-pitched whirring sound made them all pause. An instant later, a long black arrow struck the ground a foot away from Dustin's boots. The Rangers instinctively jumped aside, but the silver, rectangular object tied to the arrow's shaft didn't explode.

Dustin looked closer. "A cell phone?" he exclaimed, puzzled.

"Up there!" Blake cried, pointing a gloved hand and the team spun around in unison to see a black-clad figure perched on top of a building across the street from them, holding what appeared to be a crossbow. The figure moved to retreat, but Hunter was faster. The Thunder Ranger's hand shot up and a bolt of crimson energy had the mystery man stumbling backwards, crying out in pain or surprise.

It only took a second for the team to streak to the top of the building, but by then the figure in black had already scrambled back to his feet.

They stared at each other for half a second across the rooftop before Tori drew in a sharp breath, followed by the rest of the Rangers.

Not ten yards away from them stood a Water ninja, dressed in the familiar black leather uniform of the Wind Ninja Academy, complete with cowl and leather mouth cover. The crest of the Water element was plain to see on his jacket. Of his face, only two Asian eyes were visible and they were staring at his five opponents with a mix of apprehension and scorn.

The Rangers' frozen shock lasted only a moment, but it was long enough for the mysterious ninja to reach into his jacket. An instant later, he was holding a small unidentifiable object in front of him. The Rangers moved as one, but it was too late; the ninja threw the object to the ground and was instantly engulfed in a thick wall of smoke.

By the time the Rangers had crossed the few yards of rooftop, the ninja was gone.

Tori's visor retracted as she looked around the dissipating smoke and when she met her friend's gazes, her clear blue eyes were full of shock, anger and bafflement.

 

" _ **Meeting" Morales…**_

"A Water ninja?" Cam shook his head, incredulous. "Are you sure?"

"He wore a Water ninja uniform, and I don't think they're selling those at the costume stores in town," Hunter remarked and Cam was just about to cast him a wry look for his sarcasm when Shane spoke.

"Besides, he was using a ninja smoke bomb, so yeah, he was real."

Sensei was pacing back and forth on the computer console, his whiskers twitching in apprehension. "This is a most disturbing development. To not only find out that there is another survivor of the academy attack out there, but to see him so obviously on the same side as our enemy – possibly even _being_ the enemy…"

Another minute or two passed during which numerous speculations were made as to the identity of the traitorous ninja - or sensei - before Tori noticed that Cam was warily staring at the cell phone in his hand. The Blue Ranger waved her hand, pointing at the small silver device.

"And then this...what's with the phone, anyway?"

"I assume that's the missing note," Cam said. "It finally got delivered."

"Well, does it have a message on it or something?" Hunter asked. "Or a number to call?"

Cam flipped open the phone and began to press buttons. "Let's see…no stored phone numbers, no history of incoming or outgoing calls." Suddenly he paused. "There is a text message."

Hunter and the others moved closer. "What's it say?"

Cam stared at the phone's screen. "It says, _Cameron Watanabe, when this phone rings, it would be in your best interest to answer it._ "

Cam looked up to see six worried faces staring back at him. So much for the thin thread of hope that their mysterious enemy did not know their, or at least Cam's, real identities.

After a moment of depressed silence, Dustin said, "So what now?"

Cam reached under his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose – something he had been doing more and more lately. "We wait for the phone to ring, Dustin. Not much else we _can_ do."

They spent the next hour in tense anticipation. Shane and Hunter sparred with each other to relieve some stress; Dustin was flipping disinterestedly through a sports magazine; Tori simply stared into space while methodically chewing each fingernail to pieces; Sensei was trying to meditate, although he fidgeted so much, it was clear that peace of mind was a lost cause today. Blake chose to pace incessantly along one side of the command center, pausing only every now and then to kick at the wall while Cam was trying to keep up the illusion of working on the Zord schematics that filled the computer screen. After a while, however, he didn't even try to hide the fact anymore that he was merely pointing and clicking aimlessly.

It was almost a relief to finally hear the cell phone ring.

Cam forced himself to let it ring twice before he picked it up.

"Cameron Watanabe?" The smooth, baritone voice from the other end did not wait for confirmation. "How are you feeling after seventy-two hours of no sleep?"

Cam gripped the phone tighter, his heartbeat accelerating. "Who is this?"

"How does _A concerned citizen_ sound?" The voice now held more than a trace of mockery. "After all, with all those monster attacks lately, it is worrisome to know that the Power Rangers team is not at a hundred percent."

Cam was in no mood for games. "Cut the crap. And don't make this sound like a social call. _Who is this_?"

"The only one who can make you fall asleep again," the taunting voice replied.

Cam took a deep breath. He wasn't sure if what he was about to do was a good idea, but..."I am not playing your game, meaning that I'm not continuing this conversation until I know who I'm talking to." And with that, Cam cut the connection.

Five clean-shaven and one furry face looked at him incredulously.

"What're you..."

Cam held up a finger in a _'wait a sec'_ gesture, and his wildly beating heart had barely slowed down when the phone in his hand began to ring again.

"I don't take kindly to being hung up on!" This time the caller was no longer smug or falsely polite.

"And I don't take kindly to being ambushed and injected with whatever poison you have shot me up with," Cam countered sharply. "Now, you obviously have a reason for all this, so just cut to the chase and tell me what it is you want from me. But before that - I want to know who I'm talking to!"

The man on the other line now actually chuckled. "You got spunk, I'll grant you that. Considering what position you're in.  
"My name is Julio Morales," the voice said almost formally. "You might have heard of me before. I am being mentioned on the evening news every now and then."

Cam didn't need the help of a news anchor to recognize that name. Julio Morales wasn't as much famous as he was infamous. The head of Blue Bay Harbor's most notorious drug ring, he was known to specialize in 'designer' drugs such as Ecstasy, White China and PCP.

He was also a major thorn in the side of the Blue Bay Harbor police department and the District Attorney who had, despite their best efforts, never been able to pin anything more than a misdemeanor on the man personally. Morales knew how to cover his tracks, and he could afford the best lawyers money could buy to make sure he stayed out of jail and always one step ahead of the authorities.

"Definitely _not_ pleased to meet you," Cam said dryly, casting a glance at his father and friends who were all listening intently to the one-sided conversation. "What did you do to me and what do you want?"

"Testy, aren't we? But then again, irritability _is_ an effect of long-term sleeplessness," Morales replied, obviously intent on dragging out his little game some more. Cam just waited.

"Oh, before I forget," Morales added. "Don't even try to trace this phone call. I don't know what kind of equipment you have at your disposal, but whatever it may be, this phone is a SAV-TRAC model, completely untraceable."

"Will you get to the point!"

On the other line, Morales tsked. "All right. The point is that you are in possession of an item of mine that I would very much like to have returned to me."

Cam was taken aback. "Me?" he asked, bewildered. "How could _I_ possibly have anything that belongs to _you_?"

"Believe me, you do," Morales said. "At least indirectly. And I want it back."

Cam's voice fell to nearly a whisper. "Regardless of the fact that I have no clue about what you are referring to - I don't make deals with criminals!"

"Such a harsh word." Julio seemed merely amused. "And so incongruous. You see, I consider myself the manufacturer and distributor of the finest psychedelic merchandise in this city. When you get high with my stuff, you get nothing less than a first-class high. That's why I have so many loyal customers." He actually sounded sincerely proud of this.

"You are nothing but a low-life _drug pusher_ who is responsible for I don't know how many deaths!" Cam spat out the word with such acidic disdain that it raised several eyebrows from the group assembled around him.

Morales' voice instantly hardened. "Hey, I sell good times, okay? If someone doesn't know how much is safe enough to take or if they meet with undesirable ends because they did some dumb shit while they're higher than kites...that's not my responsibility."

"Yeah, you go ahead and keep telling yourself that." No longer able to hide his disgust, Cam's voice was dripping contempt.

"None of this concerns you," Morales snapped. "What you should be worried about is yourself. You're running out of time, Watanabe, so you better get working on getting me my money!"

Cam blinked. "Your money?" he repeated, incredulous. "This whole thing is about extorting _money_ from me?"

"Oh no, not extortion, my friend. _Rectification_."

Cam's brows drew together in complete puzzlement. "What in the world are you talking about?"

"One of my associates – I believe your friends met him earlier today – happens to be a student at your father's academy," Morales elaborated. "A few months ago he picked up a bag from one of my clients which he was supposed to deliver to my office, but he stopped by this secret school of yours before he met up with me. Now, his excuse is that he was already running late for a late-night ninja exercise of some sort and stashed the bag in his dorm room there. He promised me that he would go right to the academy after school the next day and retrieve my bag, but when he got there, your Wind Academy seemed to have _vanished_." The way Julio drawled out the last word made it very clear to Cam that the drug dealer was more than skeptical about the truth behind his courier's tale.

Cam traded a quick look with his father. Under normal circumstances, he would, of course, flatly deny the existence of the Wind Academy, but unfortunately, Morales already seemed to know far more than he had any right to know.

"And you want me to make up for your loss," Cam concluded in disbelief. "I don't believe this! You must be out of your mind."

"The way I see it, it's only fair. An item that has been left in your academy's care for safekeeping is now missing, and since you're the head teacher's son, I think I am more than entitled to insist on compensation from you." There was nothing taunting in Morales' voice now. He was dead serious. "Quid pro quo."

"I'm sure you will hate to hear this, but the academy really _ha_ s disappeared and no one knows its whereabouts, so there's no way for me to retrieve your...belongings," Cam said icily, but Morales was unfazed.

"Well, then you're just going to have to come up with another means of compensating me."

"What's in the bag?" Cam demanded to know.

"Five hundred and fifty-thousand dollars in fifty and hundred dollar bills, all laundered and untraceable," came the prompt answer. "And you are going to replace it all. Every single dollar."

Cam grimaced with disgust; Morales' disclosure hit him like a fist in the gut. Over half a million dollars of drug money hidden on academy grounds...

_"You poisoned me to make sure you're getting your drug money back?"_

"I did what I had to do to ensure that my assets are being returned to me," was Morales' unbelievable justification. "This is a lot of money we're talking about and it took a long time to earn that much dough. I am a businessman, Watanabe, I have to protect my investments. But if it makes you feel any better - this is nothing against you personally. It's strictly business; I'm sure you understand."

He said this in the tone of voice of a man who was wholly convinced of the sincerity of his words and if they had been face to face, Cam had no doubt that Morales would have emphasized his reasoning with a soothing hand on Cam's shoulder. The thought made Cam want to retch.

Julio Morales was not insane - Cam knew that much now. Cold-hearted, calculating, merciless, greedy, _evil._ But not insane. And that made him a highly dangerous opponent.

Perhaps even more so than any of the monsters Lothor had ever sent them, or even the evil space ninja himself.

"Absolutely no way," Cam hissed.

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong," the drug dealer said smugly. "You seem to be forgetting your current predicament, my friend. See, a normal person's system shuts down after about four to five days of constant sleep deprivation. Believe me, I've got proof of that. You've been up for nearly four days now, so even with you being a ninja and a Power Ranger, that little boost might give you maybe an extra twenty-four hours at best. So the way I see it...if you want to live to a ripe old age and see your children and grandchildren grow up..." Morales paused for emphasis. "You've got no choice."

"Where am I supposed to get half a million dollars from? Shake it out of my sleeves?"

"I don't give a damn how you get it as long as you get it by tomorrow at the latest."

Cam tried the blatant bluff. "What makes you think that I am not already being treated to counter your drug's effect?"

This only seemed to amuse Morales who barked a harsh laugh. "Nice try, Watanabe. But, you see, the substance currently inhibiting your system is the end product of an experiment of one of my most ingenious lab scientists. He was researching ways of making my 'Happy Pills' more effective, but instead he came up with a concoction of several rogue proteins and enzymes that attack the thalamus and prevent the body from producing melatonin and serotonin, thus effectively disabling your brain from inducing the 'sleep' phase." Morales chuckled. "It was an accidental discovery, so consequently I'm the only one in possession of this invention – and its antidote." The drug lord paused in emphasis. "And make no mistake: There is only one antidote in existence, so don't even bother wasting precious time by seeking anyone's help. No doctor or pharmacist will be able to cure you from this. No one but _me._ "

Cam was too stunned and horrified for a coherent reply to this devastating news, but this apparently was just the reaction Morales had aimed for.

"Oh, and Cameron - Don't close your eyes from now on," the drug lord warned, the smirk clearly audible in his voice. "Because if you do, chances are you won't ever open them again."


	5. Chapter 5

The sounds of furious punches being thrown drifted up to Blake's ears before the Thunder ninja had even begun his short descent towards Ninja Ops' practice room.

Inside, his brother was busy giving the heavy punching bag the beating of its life; the Crimson Ranger put so much brute force into his punches that, if the bag hadn't been bolted to the floor as well as the ceiling, it would have swung wildly in a circle. There was clearly no workout purpose behind this thrashing, but Blake couldn't blame Hunter.

He leaned against the doorjamb, watching for a moment, but Hunter was oblivious to anything but the black bag in front of him. Finally, Blake spoke up. "Bro, if you keep this up, there'll be sand all over this floor in a minute. Not to mention that you'll be too bruised to hit the real bad guy when the time comes," he said with a pointed look at Hunter's fists, covered only by his leather bracers.

At the sound of his brother's voice, Hunter ceased in mid-punch. He put a hand on the quivering bag instead while he took a few calming breaths before he turned. When he lifted his eyes to Blake's face, the Navy Ranger saw them still burning with fury and worry.

"Believe me," he said, his voice hoarse. "Even if I broke all ten fingers of my hands right now, I would still be able to wrap them around Julio Morales' throat once we find him."

Blake nodded silently, for that pretty much summed up the way he himself and the rest of the team were feeling as well. Hearing this from Hunter, though, worried him a little nevertheless. He knew his brother well enough to know that Hunter wasn't making an idle threat. He also knew that talking him out of any notions he might be harboring would be futile, so Blake instead silently determined to stick close to Hunter from now on, just in case.

He picked up a towel and tossed it in Hunter's direction. "Come on, man, the others are waiting upstairs. We've got some plans to discuss."

The two Thunder ninjas solemnly ascended the stairs into the command center. The rest of the team was assembled on their respective cushions around the low table; all except Cam, who was stretched out on the couch close enough to participate in the debate about the Rangers' next steps.

Cam's recount of the phone call and the revelation that the Wind Academy had been used as a stashing ground for drug money and at times maybe even the drugs themselves had filled them all with disgust. Speculations erupted as to who the contemptible ninja - or sensei - could be who would so blatantly abuse and disgrace their school and the Rangers' anger and frustration had mounted quickly to a point where Sensei had to order them all to blow off some steam through exercise and practice. The Winds and Blake had gone off into the woods to spar whereas Hunter had chosen to beat the living daylights out of the practice room's sand bag.

Now the team was reassembled, still as furious as before but less likely to break any furniture or equipment in the command room while brainstorming.

Hunter chose a seat next to Cam on the couch who cast him a look from beneath exhausted, half-closed eyes. The visual signs of the Green Ranger's forced insomnia were getting more and more pronounced; the deep circles under his eyes were turning to a shade of dark violet and lines of fatigue etched the corners of his mouth. Hunter wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around his partner, but apart from the fact that Cam wouldn't appreciate being drawn into an uncharacteristic hug in front of the entire team, Hunter knew that it wasn't coddling Cam needed right now; he needed a solid plan to get the antidote.

"So," Hunter asked no one in particular, "any ideas?"

"I think it's time we ask the police for help," Shane said, looking into the faces around him for confirmation. "Sheriff Carpenter should be able to help us locate Morales pretty fast."

"You think you can just walk into BBH Metro headquarters and ask to speak to the sheriff?" Cam snapped. "They'll have an amused laugh at your expense, tell you to make an appointment and then show you out the door with a patronizing pat on the back, Shane."

Shane just looked at him calmly; no one on the team took offense at Cam's irritability. "Maybe they'll ask Shane Clark to make an appointment, but I don't think they'll turn back the Red Wind Ranger."

Cam was about to retort, but blinked instead as it penetrated his exhausted mind that Shane might have a point there. "I guess so..."

Encouraged and hopeful glances passed between the Wind and Thunder ninjas. It could work; five high-school kids might be waved off by the authorities, but the sheriff would certainly have _some_ time to spare to assist the - almost - entire Power Rangers team. They had saved the city often enough from certain destruction, after all.

"Cool, but we all go," Dustin decreed. "More power of persuasion that way."

"Wish I could go, too," Cam mumbled feebly.

Tori touched his arm reassuringly. "We'll let you know anything we find out right away, okay?"

"Actually, I think somebody should probably be staying with Cam," Blake suddenly spoke up, his gaze grazing Hunter's for only an instant before it settled on Sensei. "I mean, just in case...No offense, Sensei, but..."

"None taken, Blake," their ten-inch teacher said. "As a matter of fact, I agree. I think Cam will probably need steady assistance very soon." Kanoi Watanabe met his son's silent glare with an even gaze. He was well aware how Cam was loath to ask for help with anything, but looking at him, Kanoi highly doubted that Cam could even make it up from the sofa without help right now.

Hunter leaned forward until his elbows rested on his knees. "I'll stay," he said - and could promptly feel Cam casting him a side glance. The Winds, however, accepted Hunter's offer with acknowledging nods and without so much as a raised eyebrow; the need to hurry clearly overruled any thoughts of scrutiny. A moment later they had all risen from their cushions and assumed their morphing positions. Once they were suited up and had assured Cam once again to call right away with any newfound information, the Red, Yellow, Blue and Navy Rangers made their hurried way out of Ninja Ops. Cam watched them go with a mixture of hope and apprehension and for a long minute, the subterranean chamber was as quiet as a tomb. Until a slight rustling sound told him that Hunter had scooted closer. An instant later, he felt a hand brushing his arm.

"Hey..."

Hunter was indeed much closer now, as he knew he could be with just Sensei in the room with them.

"They'll come up with something," his blond partner said. "You'll see."

Unfortunately, Cam's bone marrow deep weariness failed to take comfort in the assertion. "And what if they don't?"

Hunter shrugged. "Then we just have to come up with a different plan, that's all."

Cam suddenly looked up sharply. " _That's all_?" he barked. "My head's steadily turning to slush from lack of sleep to the point where I can barely remember my name and you want to sit down and brainstorm some more?"

Hunter blinked, momentarily taken aback at Cam's irrational outburst but immediately reminding himself that, if he were in Cam's place, his own emotional stability would probably be completely shot to hell by now. He reached out and put a comforting hand on his partner's thigh.

"Hey, relax," he said softly. "Probably won't be necessary to dig up a plan B anyways. I'm sure the others are getting all the lowdown on Morales they need from Sheriff Carpenter right now."

Cam put his hand over Hunter's. "I'm sorry." He sighed. "Didn't mean to snap at you. I'm just..." _going out of my mind with the need for sleep_ "...edgy." He let his head fall back onto the couch cushion and took off his glasses to rub at his eyes. "God, Hunter, this whole thing is so…surreal. I'm going to be killed from lack of sleep by a drug lord who wants his hidden dope money back and we can't get it, even if we wanted to, because it's stuck on an evil ninja's space ship!" With his hands still over his eyes, he let out a frustrated exclamation. "This is all so crazy!"

Hunter felt like his heart was being squeezed at the sight of his partner's dismay. On impulse, he slipped an arm around Cam's shoulder. "First of all, you are not going to die, you hear?"

Settling his head against Hunter's offered shoulder, Cam said feebly, "I feel like I'm just a Yo-Yo on the string of fate."

Shaking his head, Hunter mumbled, "Great. Other people get delusional, he starts to metaphor." But despite the mock-exasperated comment, Hunter side-eyed his boyfriend with a look of troubled speculation. He couldn't let Cam sink into this dark mood.

"Cam, will you stop being so pessimistic? You will get through this. I'm sure the guys will find something out at the police station."

"I'm not pessimistic; I'm a realist."

"That's what all pessimists say."

Cam suddenly made a guttural noise not unlike the growl of a dying animal and raked his hands through his hair. "God, I need to sleep, SLEEP!" He remained motionless for a moment, then abruptly yanked his head around, his bloodshot eyes wide. "Hunter, we could…I mean, in our suits…there should be no problem getting in and out of a bank…"

Hunter frowned. "Whoa, wait a minute, you better not be talking about what I think you are talking about!"

"Hey, we would just be sort of _borrowing_ that money until we free the academies and then we can pay it all back once we've found Julio's bag. The bank manager will understand…"

Now it was Hunter's turn to run his hand over his eyes. _Cam's ability to think straight was clearly deteriorating_. "He wants to rob a bank," he murmured to himself and when he fixed his eyes back on his boyfriend, his gaze was stern. "Cam, think about what you just said."

Cam's eyes narrowed as he made a serious attempt at rerunning his sentence through his muddled memory banks. A moment later he dropped his gaze. "You're right. I…I can't believe I just suggested that. It's just that I'm craving sleep so bad…" He made a noise in his throat that Hunter couldn't correctly identify as a sigh or a sob. "This is how a junkie must be feeling when he's coming down from a high with no more dope in sight."

Hunter grasped his shoulders gently. "Look, I'm not even going to say that I know how you feel because I don't. What I _do_ know, though, is that we _will_ figure out a way of getting that antidote and once we have it, you can sleep for three days straight if you want to, but until we do, you need to rest as best as you can. Right here." He tapped his chest with one hand while he pulled Cam towards him with the other.

"Hm." Cam cast him a glance, but leaned into his partner again without any further comment. The two Rangers sat in silence for the next few minutes, savoring their closeness. Until Cam's body pressed up against Hunter – even under these dire circumstances – ultimately began to have the effect on Hunter it always had. He resisted the urge, however, to pull Cam wholly into his arms, shield him against the entire world and kiss him senseless; right now there was much more at stake than self-indulgence.

He was in the middle of thinking up an excuse to ask Cam to sit up so he could change his position when Cam suddenly stirred of his own accord. The samurai gave a small exclamation and Hunter saw his hand reach up to his chest.

"You okay?" Hunter followed the hand's path to see it wrap around the samurai amulet - which had begun to glow.

"Yeah." Cam moved, startling Hunter slightly by sitting up on his own and the two young men stared at the Green Ranger's pulsing morpher.

"What's up with your amulet?"

Cam fingered the pendant, looking thoughtful. "I don't know. It just started glowing like that. But I'm actually beginning to feel a little better. It must be transferring energy to me somehow."

Cam really did look somewhat better; his pallor wasn't quite so ashen, his eyes not as sunken-looking as they had been when Hunter had come back from the practice room.

"Well, that's a good thing, right?" Hunter said, but Cam was apparently cautious about getting his hopes up.

"Yes and no. I do feel a little more energized, but I believe it also means that my body is probably not producing enough energy to keep me going anymore so the amulet has to channel extra power into me."

For a long moment Hunter regarded the amulet with a solemn gaze. "You better not take it off anymore, then," he suggested grimly.

Cam nodded, his face grave. Then his gaze transferred over Hunter's shoulder to where Sensei was meditating in his habitat nearby. He resolutely reached up and tucked the amulet into his shirt. "Let's not tell Dad about this."

"Cam..."

The samurai silenced Hunter with a warning glance, then pulled himself up from the couch.

"Hunter, I don't know how long this is going to last, so let's put this time to good use, okay? I hate just sitting here, waiting. I have to do _something_ , or I'll go crazy."

Hunter was right behind him as Cam sank into his desk chair and immediately began to open several browser windows. The Crimson Ranger watched while Cam called up various medical websites by memory and googled several others.

"Despite what Morales said, there's got to be some information out there about this protein mixture he shot me up with," Cam declared determinedly. "I just don't believe that this is some sort of never-seen-before prototype. There _has_ to be something more out there!"

For the next thirty minutes they browsed through medical and pharmaceutical websites as well as online publications by half a dozen renowned biochemists, but nothing yielded the results they were looking for. Thus forced to switch tactics, they turned to focus on websites which published clinical research papers on the effects of long-term sleep deprivation instead. It turned out to be a bad move.

Cam was scrolling through the research pages of the National Sleep Foundation when he came across a disquieting article describing a non-sanctioned research project on severe sleep deprivation conducted in secrecy on three volunteers. Paid to remain awake for as long as humanly possible, the two men and one woman had been kept under twenty-four hour surveillance in a controlled laboratory environment while a team of scientists took careful notes of their changing behavior patterns.

In rapt attention, Cam and Hunter read about the test subjects' steady mental and physical declines over a period of several days until the last of the volunteers had collapsed. Physically the strongest of the three, the man's body finally went into neurological shock after the fifth day of forced wakefulness and slipped into a coma where he remained for several days until his body had recovered enough to regain consciousness.

Seeing this ultimate effect of long-term sleep deprivation, Cam closed his eyes and quelled his rising nausea by pure force of will as well as some deep breaths. This man's body had healed itself by means of a comatose sleep – an option that was not available to Cam. If _he_ fell into a coma...

Next to him, Hunter had apparently arrived at the same paragraph of text as well as the same conclusion, for the blond ninja's entire body suddenly went rigid.

"Holy shit!"

A few feet away from the Supercomputer in his mobile habitat, Sensei twitched at the exclamation, obviously pulled out of his meditative trance. Cam gave his partner an exasperated look that said _'nice going'_ and quickly closed the browser window.

From the habitat came Sensei's voice. "What is going on, Cam?"

Cam deliberately kept his tone casual. "Nothing, Dad."

Hunter squinted at Cam with a frown that clearly meant ' _What do you mean **nothing**?', but _ Cam fixed Hunter with a firm look. "I don't want Dad or the rest of the team to know any of this, you hear?" he said in a low voice. "They all have a lot of stuff on their minds right now. Let's not worry them unduly."

"Unduly?" Hunter hissed and drew himself up, obviously intent on letting Cam know his opinion on what he considered _definitely_ noteworthy enough to tell the team, when a familiar noise from the stairs staunched the potential argument.

Hunter's head whipped around towards the approaching boot steps, a bad feeling rising in his gut. _They said they'd call if they found out something..._ He glanced at Cam and saw the same thought mirrored on his partner's face.

A moment later, Shane Dustin, Tori and Blake stepped into the room and it was immediately clear from their subdued body language that the news wasn't good. They raised their wrists in unison. "Power down!"

With faces as demoralized as their postures, the four ninjas approached their teammates and Shane didn't even try to beat around the bush. "Nothing. Sheriff Carpenter said Morales is the slipperiest eel he'd ever tried to catch."

"Morales seems to be really well organized," Blake chimed in. "According to the sheriff, every time they busted one of his meth labs so far, they found it cleaned out. And either his people are crazy loyal or scared to death of him, because no one's snitching."

"Carpenter said that they've been looking for Morales' latest hideout for months now, but no luck so far," Tori said grimly. "He thinks he must have moved it out of town."

"Sorry, Cam." The abject and guilty expression on the four teens' faces were moving, and Cam would have given them an encouraging smile if he could have mustered it. Instead, he leaned back into his chair, rubbing his temples and making an effort not to sound as downhearted as he felt. "It's okay, guys. You did all you could."

A depressing silence descended upon Ninja Ops for a long moment. The Rangers were staring at the floor, at their hands, at the walls - anywhere but at Cam, whose desperate situation suddenly seemed darker than ever before.

Dustin finally, albeit piteously, voiced what was on everyone's mind. "Now what?"

"Well, since the police were no help, we'll just have to find Morales our own way," Shane proposed.

That caused Hunter to look up at him. "What, you wanna walk into Crack Alley and ask the dealers to show you the way?"

Shane cast him a half-amused glance. Apparently Cam and Hunter were spending way too much time together; the samurai's sarcasm was rubbing off on the Thunder ninja. "Actually, you're not too far off with that thought," he said. "I was thinking about that on the way back here: If we can't get to Morales, why not have Morales come to us, then?"

The Air ninja paused, smiling grimly before he continued. "We go undercover, Dustin, Tori and me," he said firmly. "Pose as rich kids and potential drug buyers, try to draw him out with a large order or something of that sort." He glanced at the Thunder ninjas. "Sorry guys, but too many people might get the pushers suspicious."

Shane raised an inquisitive eyebrow in an ' _what do you think_ ' expression while his teammates were staring at him with expressions that ranged from enthusiastic – in Dustin's case – to point-blank disapproval from Cam which he was quick to voice.

"No!"

Shane turned at the exclamation, spreading his arms. "And how do you suggest we find Morales otherwise, Cam? The Yellow Pages? Yeah, there are gonna be a dozen Julio Moraleses listed there, but I don't think any of those numbers is going to be the direct line to his secret headquarters."

Ignoring the sarcasm, Cam kept shaking his head. "There's got to be some other way..."

"There may be...if we had the time to plan this out better," Tori intervened on Shane's behalf. "But we don't; we have to move on this _today_."

"I will not have you endanger yourselves!"

"Cam, we're highly trained ninjas, we can handle a few drug pushers in a dark alley," Dustin took up the argument. "We've dealt with worse; you know that."

Cam turned to his father. "Dad..." But the guinea pig teacher simply spread his paws.

"I have no better plan to offer, Cam, and frankly, time _is_ running out. I am not happy about the risks involved, but I have confidence in my students' skills and sense of caution."

There was a moment of silence before Shane said quietly, "Sorry Cam, looks like you're overruled."

The Air ninja deliberately fixed his eyes onto Tori and Dustin in an attempt to evade Cam's angry look, but even after he turned, he could still feel those almond eyes burning a hole into his back.

"All right," he said resolutely, "let's get going. We have some preparing to do if we want to look the parts."

The three Wind ninjas turned to go, but Cam's voice made them pause.

"Just make sure you have your morphers somewhere on you." Cam remained slumped in his desk chair, still peeved, yet looking mostly resigned by now. "I'll be monitoring your positions and Hunter and Blake are going to stand by, just in case you run into any trouble."

The Winds nodded in acknowledgement and headed towards the exit. On the way up the stairs, Shane's voice drifted back into the command center, speaking to Tori and Dustin.

"And just to be on the safe side, let's stay away from our usual colors."


	6. Chapter 6

The light blue VW van cruised slowly along the shabby neighborhood, looking for a suitable spot to park where it might be left unguarded for a while without it getting broken into or stolen altogether. There were not many such spots.

Orchid Park, on the dilapidated east side of the city, was also known as 'Dealer's Playground', where anyone – from the spoiled offspring of Blue Bay Harbor's upper-class citizens to the most strung-out street crackhead – could find just the kind of dope they were craving.

Dustin pointed to the left. "Over there. Looks halfway safe."

Tori pulled the van into the parking lot of a mini-shopping center and parked in the most well-lit area, right outside a large supermarket entrance. Since they hadn't been able to procure a car suitable for their charade, they had decided to walk the last block to the park.

She killed the ignition and for a moment, the three teenagers simply sat, mentally preparing for the performance they were about to put on.

Next to her in the passenger seat, Shane was a formidable figure in all-black: Sean John jeans, shirt and coat. Black Ray Ban sunglasses completed his appearance.

Dustin had chosen the 'designer-casual' look with Tommy Hilfiger jeans and brown leather jacket, accentuated with a gold loop earring and gold chain around his neck. Clipped to his belt were a cell phone, a pager and a Blackberry.

"Where in the world did you get that?" The Earth ninja pointed at Shane's wrist.

The Air ninja held it up to better reveal the expensive-looking Kenneth Cole watch and grinned. "Oh, Tori and I went shopping after we left Ops. Got that in the jewelry section at Sears. I kept the box and the receipt, so as long as it doesn't get scratched, I can return it within thirty days."

Dustin chuckled and rapped knuckles with his friend. "Smart move, my man."

Tori smiled as well. "Gotta love cash-less shopping. I put this here -" she touched the fur-rimmed collar of her thigh-length suede coat, "- on my Sears card and it has a 30-day return guarantee, too." She glanced at the wrist of her sleeve. "As long as the tag doesn't slip out."

Her smirk, however, lasted only a moment before she let out a sigh. "I feel like a circus clown," she lamented as she scrutinized her made-up face in the van's mirror.

"Actually, you look pretty darn hot," Shane said, casting her a long, appreciative look. "If Blake saw you right now, he'd probably finally work up the guts to ask you out."

Tori did indeed look the part of the sexy society brat. She was wearing the tightest jeans Dustin and Shane had ever seen her in and the low-cut beige cashmere sweater and knee-length, high-heeled boots added very nicely to the sexy effect she had aimed for.

"I wish," the Water ninja mumbled. She slipped on a pair of fashionable, yellow-tinted sunglasses and regarded her two fellow ninjas. "Ready?"

It took only a few minutes to reach the entrance of Orchid Park. Years ago, this park was a place where whole families would spend the entire day, women watching their children play while fathers were teaching their young sons how to fish in Orchid Pond.

Until the dealers moved in and took it over so completely that now only memories of good times past remained. Now the playground was abandoned, swings and slides rusting in the sun, the withered grass littered with trash and used syringes. The sight made Tori slightly nauseated. A quick glance to her left and right confirmed that her fellow ninjas were feeling

the same way. Dustin put a comforting arm around her shoulder and she instinctively reached around his waist, hugging him close to her as they kept walking.

A few figures were visible in the near distance, most of them propped up against trees or stretched out on the brown grass, but they were clearly all users. So Dustin, Tori and Shane stoically kept moving, ignoring the occasional remarks drifting towards them from the strung-out addicts all around; they were mostly obscenities or inquiries about cash.

"Dudes, I was just thinking...I don't even know how to ask for any of this stuff," Dustin suddenly said. "I mean, I'm sure there's some kind of lingo we got to use, right? If we want to sound genuine..."

A few yards up ahead, right before a bend in the pathway, stood a man dressed in an Army camouflage parka, jeans and heavy steel-toed boots. Although pale-faced and skinny almost to the point of gauntness, the man did not show any visible signs of the drug addictions that were so obvious in everybody else in his immediate surroundings. This man didn't use - he delivered.

He was casually leaning against a park bench, smoking a cigarette, but he straightened up when he saw the well-dressed trio coming towards him. Apparently, he could smell an impending deal from quite a distance.

"Leave the talking to me, then." Shane decided. "They've been showing re-runs of 'Miami Vice' on TV all last week and I'm sure I caught enough to get us through this."

Shane traded a look with Dustin and Tori, tried his best to ignore their wry looks and squared his shoulders. _Not the place and time to be showing nerves..._

The Red Ranger put on his poker face and resolutely approached the pusher. Tori and Dustin followed on his heels.

The dealer watched them with narrowed, wary eyes. He offered no greeting when they came to a stop in front of him. Neither did Shane. This close up, Shane suddenly noticed that the man was wearing the exact same cell phone model on his belt that was delivered to Cam yesterday in such an improper fashion. It had to be one of Morales' men.

"Whatcha got?" he said in a low, almost conspiratorial tone.

The scrawny man gave the trio a thorough look-over. "Whatcha need?"

"My friends and I are throwing a rave tomorrow and I was told that we could find the best-quality stuff here, but only from 'Morales Inc,'" Shane began. "You on that team?"

"Maybe," the peddler replied, vague and still suspicious. "Who told you to connect here? I ain't seen you around here before."

"Guy at the last rave party we went to."

"Who?"

Shane shrugged nonchalantly. "I didn't get his name. I might've asked his name, but I was so ripped at the time..." He shrugged again. "The name didn't stick."

Before the dealer could say anything, Dustin broke in. "Shouldn't matter who sent us here, anyway. What should matter to you is that we're here to seriously make your day, dude."

Shane nodded. "Look, this is kind of our first time doing this, but…"

"You don't say," the dealer remarked wryly.

"...but we want everyone who comes to _our_ party tomorrow to be blown away by it, so we need to be hooked up in a major way."

Now there was a spark of interest in the man's askant gaze. "How 'major' are we talking?" he wanted to know. "Couple of Ben Franklins?"

Deliberately slowly, Shane took off his Ray Ban's. "More like a couple of G's," he replied, fixing the dealer with as sincere a gaze as he could muster. If they didn't snag him now, the whole deal would certainly fall through. The man looked at them, then at the ground, contemplating.

"A rave, huh?"

"Not _a_ rave, babe; _the_ rave," Tori said, then blew a chewing gum bubble before she continued. "This is gonna be the most slamming party ever!"

Having apparently come to the conclusion that these three snobby, yet obviously inexperienced kids could not possibly be undercover police, greed was now rapidly taking precedence over caution with the dealer and his eyes took on an eager gleam. "All right, so what're you looking for? I can get you Crystal T, Fairy Dust, Binkies, Quartz, M&M's, E,…"

Shane jumped on the only word he recognized. "Definitely some E pills. How much for those?"

"They're an Abe a bean." The dealer rolled his eyes at the three uncomprehending stares he received. "Five bucks a pill."

Dustin snorted derisively. "That's too cheap to be good quality stuff." He let his gaze drift over the other dealers in the area. "Maybe we should…"

"Hey, hey, I don't sell no bad trips here, okay?" their pusher exclaimed, indignant. "This is the corner for the best stuff anywhere in Blue Bay. Besides, everyone else around here works for J. M. too, so you might as well stick with me."

The man relaxed visibly as the three teens turned towards him again. Eager to please now, he let out a crooked grin and said, "You'll be lit up for at least an hour on my E. Cloud nine. Guaranteed."

Shane, Dustin and Tori traded exaggerated looks, pretending to seriously contemplate the sales pitch. Then Shane nodded, shooting off an order from the hip.

"All right. We need at least a hundred... _Binkies_ , three to four dozen pops of E. and a few hundred bucks worth of M&M's. And we need it today!"

The scrawny man's eyes promptly narrowed again. "That's a lot of stuff for a coupla joy poppers like you." He looked once more from Shane to Dustin and Tori, scrutinizing them for a long moment before he scratched his head. "Some party you're planning there."

From her position still snuggled into Dustin's side, Tori smiled seductively. "Believe it."

"I would have to make a call first."

"You do that," Shane nodded, schooling his game-face for his next words. "And once you got your boss on the line, I want to talk to him myself about the price of his supplies."

The dealer immediately shook his head, frowning. "No way, man." But Shane matched him glare for glare.

"Listen, this order is too large for me to risk dealing with anyone else but your main man. I'm not used to dealing with brokers. Whenever I make a purchase, I don't deal with the first clerk that comes my way the minute I walk into the shop - I go straight to the store manager. And I don't plan on changing that habit now, you understand?"

The dealer, however, was resolute. Clearly, he was worried about being cut out of the commission for this deal. "I'll call Ju.. – _my boss_ \- but _I'll_ be the one talking to him!"

Shane sighed exasperatedly and held up his hands. "All right, fine," he relented. "But you tell him we want to meet him when we pick up the merchandise. At that large a quantity - and that high a price - I wanna make sure we get everything we're paying for." The Red Ranger put an extra dose of snobbishness into his smirk.

The dealer started to protest again, but Dustin quickly stepped in. "Hey, those are the conditions, dude. Morales delivers the wares. Otherwise, no deal."

"The boss doesn't work that way," the pusher snapped, but the three teens were unfazed. Shane folded his arms across his chest. "He better make an exception this time, because if we close this deal to our satisfaction, and the party's a success, we'll want to do it again. And who knows - the next one might be twice as big, so we'll need a whole lot more supplies…" He let the sentence trail off and the implication worked on the pusher, for the man held up his hands.

"All right, all right, lemme see what I can do, 'kay?" One hand dropped to his belt, unclipping the cell phone while he took a few steps away from them. Shane, Tori and Dustin waited in tense silence while he spoke in murmured tones for a few minutes. Several times during the one-sided conversation, he glanced at them, but finally, he flipped the phone shut.

"All right, guys, all taken care of," he announced when he rejoined their little circle.

Now it was Shane's turn to narrow his eyes suspiciously. "Really? Morales had no problem with the...uh, personalized delivery?"

"Nope," the pusher replied, giving them a crooked grin which looked just a bit too amused. "Mr. M. said to meet him here at six tonight and he'll have your order ready and waiting for ya. Also told me to tell you that he hopes this will be the start of a mutually beneficial business relationship. Just don't expect your stuff to come gift-wrapped."

The skinny pusher chuckled at his little joke, pulled a packet of cigarettes out of his parka pocket and lit a stick.

Shane cast a glance at his two friends and in their eyes he saw the reflection of his own thoughts; _seemed almost too easy._

But since they had to keep up the appearance of being pleased about the deal, they grinned at each other and Shane stuck his hand out to the dealer. "All right, man..."

The pusher ignored the gesture and instead took a long drag on his cigarette, speaking as he exhaled. "I guess I'll see y'all back here at six, then."

The dismissal was obvious, but Shane, Dustin and Tori gladly adhered to it and made their way down the path back towards the park's entrance. The encounter had left them all with a bitter taste in their mouths and the pressing urge to take a long shower.

They had almost reached the entrance of the park again when suddenly, Dustin's cell phone went off. The display window showed Hunter's number. Dustin cast a worried glance at his friends; the team had agreed that the Thunders and Cam would wait for the Winds to call when they were on the way back. So why would Hunter call _them_? A bad feeling surged through Dustin as he flipped open the phone. "Hello…"

 

**_Ninja Ops, a little earlier…_ **

Cam rubbed his eyes, sighing. This was the third time in the past hour that his vision had become blurred to the point where he could not make out the individual lines on his computer screen anymore.

Behind him, disconcertingly alert to any changes in Cam's condition, Hunter said, "I think you should stop, Cam. You need to con..."

"Conserve my energy," Cam spoke to his screen. "Yes, I know, but I have no intention of letting Dustin, Tori and Shane be out there unmonitored." He indicated the three pulsating dots on the huge screen. "And on top of that, there are still Zord upgrades I have to do." _And I don't know how much time I still have for all this,_ he added silently.

A firm hand on his shoulder made him glance up. Hunter was solemn.

"Cam, please. Rest. I can monitor the Winds' morpher signals from here."

Cam regarded his partner and there was something almost imploring in Hunter's gaze as the blond ninja looked back at him. "Okay."

Knowing that he would have a hard time rising from the chair on his own, Cam wordlessly held out his hand to Hunter. The Thunder Ranger reached for it and hoisted him out of the chair.

Cam moved stiffly and practically fell into the couch cushions. He had just closed his eyes when the silver cell phone rang.

Across the room, Blake froze from his shadow-boxing, and Sensei looked up sharply from the book he was pretending to read. Everyone stared at the phone for a moment before Hunter picked it up from where it lay on the computer console and, with an apprehensive glance at Cam, handed it to him.

Cam sighed; no need to wonder who this would be.

"Yes?"

"Cameron, my friend, you amuse me to no end." Julio Morales sounded genuinely tickled. "That ridiculous charade your three friends just pulled..." the drug lord chuckled. "I can't remember the last time I had such a good laugh."

Dread and despair made Cam squeeze the phone in a white-knuckled grip. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Aw, come on. I just got off the phone with my boy from Orchard Park and the moment he was describing his three 'buyers' to me, I knew who they were. They might as well have worn their Ranger suits." Morales laughed again. "They might be good monster-fighters, but they are horrible actors. So call them off and stop wasting my time and yours; get to putting my money together instead.  
"You've already exceeded the normal amount of time a body can function without sleep, so I reckon you probably have less than twenty-four hours now," Julio concluded matter-of-factly. "So how about this: instead of meeting your friends at Orchard Park tonight at six, I will be meeting _you_ thereat six for our little exchange of presents. _If_ you can still manage to walk by then, that is."

Morales was clearly enjoying this immensely. " _Hasta luego_ , my friend," he said cheerfully and terminated the connection before Cam had a chance to reply.

The samurai looked up to meet his partner's enquiring gaze. "He knows," Cam murmured feebly as he tossed the phone onto the command table where it landed next to Kanoi.

Sensei said nothing, but the look in his lucent black eyes spoke volumes. Cam evaded the chagrin he saw there by letting his head fall back into the couch cushion and slinging an arm across his eyes.

"Hunter," he heard his father say. "Contact the Winds, please. Pull them back."

While Hunter was calling Dustin, Cam suddenly felt a familiar small weight land on his chest. He raised the crook of his arm just enough to squint one-eyed at his dad.

"Cam," Sensei implored. "We can still try to purge the poison using our ninja healing powers. I believe we might be successful if all of us combine our efforts."

"Dad, I thought we had established the understanding that we first needed to know exactly what it is we're trying to neutralize here."

"Yes," Sensei admitted, "but since we do not possess this knowledge we will just have to go off the little bit of information Julio Morales has disclosed to you earlier."

Blake, who had settled himself on the edge of the command table near Cam's head, now chimed in. "I think at this point it's as good a plan as any, Cam. Otherwise - " The younger Bradley consulted his wrist watch. "It's almost three now. That means we have about three hours left to figure out how to either get our hands on Morales - or how to get our hands on the five hundred thousand dollars floating a few hundred miles above our heads."

 _Three hours._ Cam ran a hand through his hair. Three hours and they still weren't an inch closer to somehow getting together half a million dollars. Cam knew that the Wind Academy's bank accounts were still active at Harbor Federal Bank, but he had given only half a fleeting thought to that possibility. No way was Morales getting his dirty hands on his father's hard-earned money, even if the funds from those accounts were enough – which they weren't.

No, there had ever only been one choice, really. They had to find the antidote within the next several hours.

A few feet away, Hunter had concluded his call to Dustin and picked up the discussion where Blake had left off. "Maybe we can try to sneak onto the ship?" he suggested without much conviction.

"Been there, tried that, didn't work, remember?" Cam reminded him. "The shields around it were too strong then, and I'm sure Lothor has upped his surveillance and security even more since that attempt."

"I suppose we couldn't just ask Lothor for the bag?" Blake mumbled mostly to himself only to promptly receive three highly wry looks. "Uhm, yeah, forget it," he said sheepishly. "Stupid idea."

From his position on Cam's chest, Sensei addressed his three students. "We shall wait for Shane, Dustin and Tori to return and then we will try the combined healing-power technique," he decided and the next few minutes passed in contemplative silence until several shuffling noises from the stairs announced the arrival of the Wind ninjas.

Dressed once again in their leather training suits, the three teens all but bowed before their mentor and teammates in shame at their failure, anger and misery radiating from every one of them. However, no words of apology were uttered; the Rangers all understood that what little time remained was not to be wasted with drawn-out apologies.

"I just can't believe he saw right through us," was Tori's only doleful comment.

From the couch, Cam waved a tired hand. "Yeah, well, that's why he's on top of the drug food chain in this city." He put his arm back over his eyes just as the Blue Ranger gave him a look that was virtually dripping with guilt.

Sensei took that moment to hop from Cam's chest onto the command table and immediately proceeded to fill the Wind Rangers in on the next agreed-upon plan.

But the more Cam listened to his father instructing his students how to most efficiently tap into their inner healing powers, the more futile that plan was beginning to sound to his over-exerted brain. He lowered his arm from his eyes to voice his skepticism once more, but when his gaze focused on his teammates, the words died in his throat and his eyes widened in disbelief. The five people in the room with him had changed.

Physically, Shane, Tori, Dustin, Blake and Hunter were still the same, but the exposed skin of their hands and faces were now tinted with their respective Ranger colors. Cam gaped at his teammates. Hunter's blond hair made his crimson complexion even more fiery-looking. It was a downright frightening sight. His boyfriend looked like a boiled lobster – or the devil.

 _'Hallucinations! Has to be!_ ' The small part of Cam's brain that was still thinking rationally was telling him. Heart pounding, he squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his temples. He took a few deep breaths before he dared to open them again to find the Crimson Ranger's blue eyes regarding him worriedly from a face that – mercifully – was now back to his normal, pale skin tone. _Thank God._

"Cam? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just a headache." _It's getting worse; we have to act fast._ All previous qualms forgotten now, Cam schooled his face into a blank expression. "Let's just go ahead with Dad's plan."

And while Cam transferred from the couch to a lotus position on the floor, the Wind and Thunder ninjas arranged themselves in a tight circle around him, kneeling close enough to each touch a different part of the samurai's body. Shane and Hunter each claimed a shoulder, Dustin placed his hand flat on his back, Tori had her palm pressed firmly against his heart and Blake's hand was touching his thigh. With their free hands, the Rangers also touched each other, each connecting with the teammate beside him or her to form an unbroken circle of energy. Cam cupped his hands in his lap and Sensei somersaulted onto his son's open palm.

"Rangers," he addressed his team solemnly. "You must clear your heads of everything but the task before us. Focus wholly on your healing powers. You all know how to do this; all of you have used your skills before, whether on yourselves or on others."

At that, Hunter's gaze reflexively locked with Shane's for a moment, both remembering their not-brief-enough time as Lothor's captives, when the evil space ninja had used them as test subjects for his latest and most ferocious monster. ((See footnote))

If it hadn't been for Shane and his healing powers, Hunter would most likely not have survived that encounter. Facing impending death, Hunter had also made certain revelations to Shane that day and so far the Red Ranger had been true to his word and kept quiet about it.

In silent consensus, the Rangers took a joint deep breath and closed their eyes as each of them reached inside themselves to connect with and disperse their healing energy towards Cam. Ninja Ops was utterly quiet while the teens drew strength and confidence from one another as well as from Sensei, who was still kneeling inside Cam's open palms and had his son's wrists gripped with tiny hands. An aura of _healing_ seemed to surround the Wind teacher and for the next few minutes every thought of everyone in the room was concentrated into channeling cleansing energy into their stricken teammate.

They were so intently focused that the sudden blaring of the monster alarm startled them all enough to jump halfway out of their skins. No one made a move to get up, but the damage was done; the Rangers' concentration was broken.

"Aw man, we _so_ don't need this right now," Blake moaned.

Sensei let out a heavy sigh and his tiny shoulder sagged. "Let us see what Lothor is up to this time."

Hunter was mumbling something unintelligible under his breath as he shot to his feet and made his way towards the Supercomputer while the rest of the team scrambled to their feet as well.

"What's up with all these attacks lately?" Dustin snapped. "It's almost like Lothor's collaborating with Morales or something."

With obvious effort, Cam pushed himself up from the floor. Once upright, he swayed and Shane quickly reached out to steady him. Hunter shot his partner an inconspicuous look. Cam had almost completely lost his usual, easy grace by now and it worried Hunter tremendously. It was a disconcertingly visual sign for the samurai's rapidly deteriorating condition, for even despite the amulet's power boost, Cam seemed to get weaker by the hour.

Cam collapsed into his desk chair and zoomed in on the disturbance while behind him, the team assumed their morphing positions. By the time they had transferred into their suits, Cam's computer had already devised a battle strategy. Which was a good thing, because Cam's mind could no longer stay focused enough anymore to come up with one of his own.

After the morph, the Rangers assembled around Cam as the screen revealed not one, but two of Lothor's already giant-sized monsters materializing at the beach. They leveled the lifeguard tower and its adjoining cabana rental booth before they turned to make their way towards the city. One of them was picking its teeth with the pole of a beach umbrella.

"Great, a new tactic. Tag teaming," Hunter grumbled. "Just what we need right now."

Cam scowled at the screen. "Can't let them reach the city. Better get a move on, guys. I'm sending the..." Cam paused, blinking. He meant to say _Zords_ , but could not for the life of him dredge the word from the background of his foggy mind. "...machines," he finished

lamely, avoiding the team's concerned glances by doggedly staring at the screen and hitting command keys. Thankfully, even though he could not remember the names of the Rangers' battle robots, he still recalled how to release them from the underground bay.

He felt a hand come to rest on his shoulder, then Hunter's voice. "I can stay..."

"No." Cam shook his head resolutely. "From the looks of those freaks, it's going to take all of you to bring them down." Cam fixed his tired eyes on Hunter, resisting the impulse to put his hand over his partner's. "I'll be all right, don't worry."

Hunter's eyes flickered between Cam and the computer screen for a long moment, then the Crimson Ranger gave a hesitant nod. "All right. Then I'll see you in a little while. We'll try to make this quick."

Hunter was the last one to streak out of Ninja Ops, obviously very reluctant to be leaving at all. The city was in danger, however, and that took precedence over everything. Cam stoically kept himself from looking over his shoulder until he sensed that he was alone. Only then did he give in to the dismayed sigh that was building up in the back of his throat. He raked his hands through his hair and tried to focus on the screen in front of him, deliberately ignoring the steadily pulsing pendant beneath his shirt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See: Shades of Red


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: While researching the effects of sleep deprivation I found out that, in real life, it would actually take someone quite a bit longer to collapse from lack of sleep. For the sake of the flow of this story, however, I have decided to apply literary license and shorten the time span to five days.

The Storm and Thunder Megazords intercepted Lothor's monsters on the outskirts of town. The Thunder Megazord disposed of the first creature with only a few well-placed blows, but the second monster turned out to be anything but a pushover and the ensuing battle was fierce.

"Cam, we need some power spheres here," came Shane's voice through the intercom after a few minutes. Cam's hands went for the keyboard – only to freeze in place as a sudden wave of nausea washed over him. Eyes squeezed shut, he sat frozen in place until the attack passed, but when he opened them again, the images before him were blurred, taking form only slowly. He actually reached up to check whether he was wearing his glasses. He was.

Cam blinked a few times, and his vision improved, albeit only marginally. On the computer screen, the Thunder Megazord took a vicious blow to the chest that brought it down to one knee.

"Cam?" came Shane's voice again, tinged with urgency and alarm.

Cam blinked again. He knew he had to do something, but found that he had a hard time getting his brain to form any coherent thoughts. He managed to say "Hold on," but when he tried to focus on his computer, he couldn't even connect half of the objects in front of him with their respective names. All memories of how to access the program to transfer the power spheres were gone, and Cam felt the sweat break out along his hairline.

Subconsciously he knew that the neurons in his brain were short-circuiting, but he had not the slightest idea what to do about it.

"Son?" Sensei had hopped onto the keyboard and was looking at Cam with a worried expression. Cam turned his head – and flinched. _I'm hallucinating again,_ he thought. There was a talking hamster in a robe standing not a foot away from him. Or was it a gerbil? _No, wait! Lothor, attack, spell…_

"Dad, I…" But before he could continue, there was another wave of nausea, this time accommodated by a sensation not unlike floating. Cam felt disconnected from his body and before he knew it, he had somehow risen from his chair. He heard his father's voice, but it was distorted, as if he were speaking from under water. His surroundings became blurred again. Cam felt the impact of his body with the ground only in a sense that he was aware of the floor rushing towards him.

His father's small form came into view again, close by his face, but Cam still couldn't make out anything he was saying. He wanted to reach out, but he had no strength to raise his arm. From a distant chamber of his memory, a voice suddenly emerged: _Don't close your eyes from now on, for if you do, chances are you won't ever open them again._

A bolt of fear shot through Cam, but it wasn't enough to keep him conscious. He fell into a void of blackness at the same time as Sensei bounced back up to the console and onto the communications button to call the Rangers for help.

 

_**Renewing an acquaintance…** _

When Hunter streaked through the door two minutes later, he was still morphed. He powered down as he dropped to his knees next to Cam's head, his blood running as icy as any January mountain stream.

There was no need to ask Sensei for any further details of what happened; Cam's dreaded collapse had been imminent.

Hunter pulled Cam halfway into his lap and cradled his head in his arm. He slapped the samurai's cheeks lightly, calling his name, although he didn't really expect a reaction. Cam never even twitched.

Hunter groped for Cam's wrist. His pulse was rapid and weak but at least it was _there_. The Crimson Ranger didn't know much about First Aid, but he was aware of the life-threatening risk of shock, so he gently put Cam's head back on the ground, then sped into the direction of his partner's room, returning only a moment later with an armful of pillows and blankets. He shoved one pillow under Cam's head, covered him with a heavy comforter and used the rest of the blankets and pillows to elevate his legs. Only then did Hunter sit back, contemplating his next move. He raked his fingers through his mop of hair, trying to force the hovering panic down enough to think at least halfway clearly. _Now what?_

A loud noise sounded from the direction of the Supercomputer's monitor, but Hunter spared it only a fleeting glance - just long enough to register that the Storm Megazord had destroyed the second monster.

Sensei appeared next to Cam's head. Up until now, the guinea pig had been watching Hunter's ministrations silently, giving neither orders nor offering any directions, which spoke of the level of trust Cam's father put into his son's partner.

"Sensei, we have to take him to a hospital."

"I agree," Kanoi said gravelly. "Cam must receive medical attention as fast as can be. There is no other choice now." Even though the Wind teacher had spoken calmly, Hunter could hear the quiver in his voice.

"If only there was a doctor we could take into our confidence about this..."

At that, Hunter's head jerked up from the memory Sensei's exclamation suddenly evoked. In the back of his mind was a voice, loud and clear: _'_ I'm a doctor at BBH General Hospital.'  
 _The monster attack two weeks ago...the man stuck in the elevator at the Southside Mall..._

Hunter fumbled for his back pocket and pulled the forgotten business card from his wallet. The doctor could help. He had to. No other possibility even bore contemplation.

And for the first time since he had been handed the card a few weeks earlier, Hunter actually took a closer look at it.

Gerald McAllister, MD  
Chief Physician, Emergency Department  
BBH General Hospital

Hunter tore his cell phone from his belt and punched the number on the card with shaky fingers, only to be promptly rebuffed when the call connected.

"Doctor McAllister is currently making his rounds," the nurse told him in a professionally distant manner. "I can take a message…"

"No," Hunter interrupted sharply. "This is an emergency. I need to speak to him _now_!"

The nurse could apparently hear the barely contained panic in his voice, for she hesitated only briefly. "Hold, please."

Hunter endured another few minutes of annoyingly upbeat hold music before a new, distinctly male voice, came on the line.

"Gerald McAllister."

At the sound of the doctor's quiet authoritative voice, Hunter unconsciously gripped the phone tighter. "Doctor McAllister…" Suddenly, even in the midst of this extreme situation, he found himself at a loss for words. How could he possibly relay this desperate emergency accurately? And more importantly…How much could he disclose? Hunter took a deep breath. "A few weeks ago, you gave your card to someone with the words: _If there's ever anything I can do for you or anyone on your team, call me.'_ "

For a moment, there was silence on the other line, before the doctor's voice came on again, strong and determined.

"Yes, I remember," Hunter heard him say. "I remember very well."

Hunter expelled the breath he'd been holding. "Sir, it looks like I have to take you up on your offer."

 

_**The hospital…** _

Doctor McAllister was waiting at the curb of the circular driveway of Blue Bay Harbor General Hospital's ER entrance when Tori's van pulled up. Only one orderly with a stretcher stood next to him. Hunter was pulling the door open before the Water ninja had even come to a complete stop.

Dr. McAllister took one long look at Hunter's crimson shirt, then met his eyes. "I wish it could have been under better circumstances, but - good to meet you again..."

"Hunter," the Thunder ninja finished the sentence and the physician nodded in acknowledgment.

"Tell me about it," Hunter said grimly, then gripped the physician's elbow. "Over here." He motioned to the van's side door which was being slid open from the inside even as they spoke. Dr. McAllister grabbed a corner of the stretcher and brought it alongside the van just as Hunter and a dark-skinned boy in red were carefully but clumsily trying to transfer an obviously unconscious young Asian man from the backseat of the van. The orderly lent a hand and the green-clad boy was strapped to the stretcher a minute later.

From the interior of the vehicle now emerged two dark-haired boys; one in yellow, the other one in dark blue denim. A blonde girl coming around the driver's side of the van made up the rest of the group.

Gerald McAllister had no doubt that the entire Power Rangers team was now assembled before him, but he was too much of a professional to let that faze him. His primary concern was the unconscious young man on the gurney. He motioned for the orderly and Hunter to push the stretcher while he unclipped a penlight from his coat pocket and shone it in the boy's eyes. No reaction in either pupil. Not good. While he trotted beside the stretcher, Dr. McAllister took the boy's pulse. It was rapid and dangerously weak. His skin felt clammy to the touch.

"You said on the phone that he was attacked and injected with an unknown substance that prevents him from sleeping," McAllister recapped. "And he's been up for five days?"

At Hunter's nod, the doctor was silent for a long moment, obviously thinking, and the grave expression on his face sent another spike of fear through the Crimson Ranger.

The orderly wheeled Cam down the ER hallway, past the Triage station and several patient rooms towards the end of the corridor, the Rangers following only a step behind.

"We'll have to run a few tests, toxicology and such, but for now, let's just get him settled in." The tall physician had his stethoscope pressed to Cam's chest, but he nodded his head down the hallway. "I set aside a single-patient room for him and my staff is aware of the need for complete privacy in this case."

"Thank you, Doc. We appreciate that," Shane murmured from the other side of the gurney.

A moment later, the orderly made a hard left, steering the stretcher through the door of a patient room where a nurse was already busy preparing what looked like an EKG machine. They secured Cam's bed to its bay and the nurse immediately proceeded to take off the samurai's clothing.  
As soon as Cam had been wrestled into a hospital gown, Dr. McAllister turned to the nurse. "I want a full set of blood work done asap." And while the nurse was looking for a suitable vein in Cam's arm, the physician handed Hunter a clipboard. "Here, fill out your friend's medical history in the meantime. Try to be as detailed as possible." At Hunter's wary look, he lowered his voice. "Don't worry; it's just for my personal reference. None of this will end up in the hospital's files."

"Okay." Hunter eyed the form on the clipboard, frowned, then looked up to where the rest of the team was hovering near Cam's bed. "Uh, guys...I might need some input here..."

Glad to have something, _anything_ to do, the Rangers crowded around Hunter and together, they pieced Cam's medical history together as best as possible.

Meanwhile, Dr. McAllister and his nurses were busy assessing Cam's condition and hooking him up to IV fluids and monitoring equipment.

As soon as the gang had finished their collaborative effort of filling out Cam's medical history form, they went back to crowding around their fallen team member's bed, but Dr. McAllister cast them all a pointed look. "Normally, due to the severity of this case, I would have to restrict access to this room to family members only."

Hunter fixed Dr. McAllister with a resolute gaze, ready to argue. "We're his teammates, Doc!"

The doctor nodded in affirmation, but his voice stayed firm. "I know, but there are still too many of you in here."

Shane stepped forward, resolute in his role as leader. "We need to get going anyway. We _have_ to find Morales and the antidote somehow."

"Yeah, but where do we start?" The look on Dustin's face could not have been more dismal. They all remembered the failed session with the sheriff and the botched drug-buy attempt. All eyes automatically went to the team leader, whose own gaze was firmly fixed on Cam's bed. Shane took a heavy breath while he ran a hand across his face. Hunter regarded him solemnly. The Red Ranger looked tired - matter of fact, they all did.

"All right," Shane sighed after a moment, cast a look around at his teammates and began to pace. "Let's recap: The attack happened right after the fight with Mara and Kapri's kelzaks, right? So I'm thinking...what if we were under surveillance since then? Or even during the fight?" The Air ninja made sure he had the team's attention before he continued. "The Supercomputer is programmed to record every battle, so maybe if we viewed the tape of the fight...I mean, concentrate on the spectators, the immediate surroundings - anything or anybody suspicious." He shrugged as he looked at his friends. "Unless you guys have any other ideas."

They did not, and the looks of worry and fear Shane saw in his friends' faces he knew was visible in his own as well.

"It's as good a plan as any at this point," Blake finally said and that seemed to break the helpless paralysis that appeared to have settled upon the Rangers. Heads nodded, shoulders squared and anxious glances traveled between Cam's bed and the door.

"Right, then let's go," Dustin said resolutely.

Hunter looked at Cam's blanket-swaddled form, clearly torn between his need to stay with his partner and the urge to find Morales. Blake put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "How about you stay here, and we'll let you know when we find out something," he suggested quietly.

Hunter exchanged a glance with his brother, then turned to McAllister. "Can I stay, Doc?"

"Yes, sure."

"All right," Blake patted Hunter's back. "We'll be in touch, bro."

Hunter caught his brother's arm. "You better. Call me the moment you find out any news. I need to know what's going on."

"For sure!"

Miserable for half a dozen reasons, Hunter watched his friends sprint from the room until Dr. McAllister's voice broke his trance-like stare.

"Hunter, is there anyone from Cam's family whom you should contact?"

Hunter thought of a ten-inch robed guinea pig who was doubtlessly pacing the entire length of Ninja Ops' command center right now, waiting for word about his son. He would have to wait a few more minutes longer, until the ninjas arrived at Ops to report to him.

Reluctantly, he shook his head. "No. We're pretty much his family." His eyes transferred to Cam's face and the next words came out almost of their own accord. "And I am his partner."

He sensed McAllister regarding him for a moment as he kept his eyes fixed on Cam. Before long, he heard the doctor's voice. "Well, that's about as close to family as it'll get, then." The physician hung the clipboard back onto the foot rail of the bed, then came to stand next to Hunter. "Until the more in-depth blood analysis comes back, I'm afraid there's not much more we can do except keep him warm, hydrated and monitor his vital signs. I'll be on duty for a few more hours, so I'll swing by every now and then." The doctor pulled a notepad and pen from his coat pocket, scribbled something, then tore off the small page and handed it to Hunter. "Stay as long as you like and if anything comes up, here's my personal cell phone number."

Hunter pocketed the paper and mumbled a thank you. He watched McAllister's back until the physician had stepped out into the hallway, then pulled a chair close to Cam's bed and began his vigil.


	8. Chapter 8

As the disheartened group of Rangers entered Ninja Ops, the first thing they saw was Sensei standing forlornly on top of the console of the supercomputer. The four teenagers immediately crowded around their teacher to report on the happenings of the past hour and to reassure Sensei that Cam was in good hands with Dr. McAllister – and Hunter.

Cam's desk chair was still toppled over and Tori automatically put it back in its rightful place. No one made a move to sit in it, however. This was Cam's chair, after all.

Instead, the Rangers related Shane's idea and Sensei agreed that the plan was worth a shot.

"Okay," Dustin declared, "so now all we have to do is find that recording." He cast Cam's computer an uneasy look, then turned to his fellow ninjas who were all wearing similar expressions. All but one.

Strangely enough, it was Blake who turned out to have a bit more than rudimentary knowledge about the Supercomputer. Apparently, during the Thunder Rangers' three-month stay at Ninja Ops, Cam had taken it upon himself to drill some computer education into his newest teammates and Blake had been the more receptive one of the Bradleys. Thankfully, one of the things he recalled was how to get into the surveillance recordings archive - knowledge that came in very handy right now.

The archive was labeled according to battle-dates, so all he had to do was pull up the corresponding day and a few keystrokes later, the Rangers were watching themselves thrash a dozen kelzaks all across the shopping center's main plaza. Blake adjusted the view of the video, zooming in on the surroundings immediately behind the fighting where about a dozen spectators had gathered. In slow-motion, he let the faces stream by until a sudden sharp intake of breath from behind him made him flinch.

"Hey, wait. Freeze that picture!" Tori literally lunged forward, pointing wildly.

Blake hit the pause button and the blurry faces of two teenagers, one Asian and one Hispanic with wiry hair in the style of 'electroshock', filled half of the screen. Tori stared at the young men.

"Oh my god, it's Jared Wong!" she all but whispered.

Shane and Dustin frowned simultaneously. "Who?"

"Him," Tori gesticulated. "The Asian guy with the baby face and the acne-scarred cheeks…I know him. He's a Water ninja, he was in my class before Lothor's attack. I thought he was on the space ship now with the others. Sensei…" Tori's head whipped around, searching, but Sensei was already hopping onto her shoulder, squinting at the screen as well.

"You are correct, Tori," he said. "This is indeed Jared Wong. And yes, he _is_ a Water ninja."

The four teenagers traded amazed looks as the implication of Sensei Watanabe's words set in.

"This is no coincidence that this guy would just happen to show up at the battle scene," Blake growled after a moment and Shane nodded in grim acknowledgment.

"You're right. I think we just found the traitor from the roof."

Dustin stared at the screen. "I've never seen this guy before," the Earth ninja declared.

"Doesn't surprise me," Tori said. "He's a loner. A good fighter, but very quiet and anti-social. We were in the same elemental classes for a few weeks, but I don't think I spoke more than a dozen words to him – or saw him speak more than the most necessary to anyone, for that matter."

Dustin and Shane traded a thoughtful look. "Now if we could only find him somehow..."

Tori suddenly transferred her gaze from the computer screen to her friends. "About that..." The corners of her mouth began to lift. "Would it help if I told you where he works?"

The blonde girl couldn't help but grin at the incredulous stares she promptly received from her three teammates.

 

_**Confronting Jared…** _

" _Flix"_ Video Store was the fifth store in a row of small businesses across from Blue Bay University. Tori parked the van in a slot right outside the shop's glass doors. Turning off the ignition, she said, "It was really an accident that I ran into him here, because this isn't even where I normally rent my movies from; it was just that I wanted to see this particular chick-flick, but no other video store in town was carrying it, so I asked them to put it on hold for me. And when I got here to pick it up, he just happened to be working that day."

"Lucky for us now that you like schmaltzy movies." Dustin grinned.

Shane cast a look in the rearview mirror at the backseat where Blake was on his cell phone, just wrapping up recounting the results of the tape viewing to his brother.

"Let's just hope he's there today," the Air ninja said grimly and reached for the door handle the moment Blake hung up the phone. The four teens piled out of the van and entered the store, but it took Tori only one quick look around to determine that their quarry was nowhere to be seen. They asked for him at the checkout counter anyways.

"Jared?" The manager-on-duty seemed eager to help. "Yeah, he's here today, but he's on his break right now. Should be back in a few minutes. I think he just went to grab some food from the taco joint around the corner. Do you guys want to wait or can I give him a message?"

"Uh, that's okay," Shane replied quickly. "We'll just come back later."

They reassembled in Tori's van, intent on staying put until the elusive Water ninja showed up. They didn't have to wait long.

A teenager rounded the corner approximately five minutes later, carrying a brown paper bag and a soda cup with the taco restaurant's bright logo on it. Tori sat up straighter and answered Shane's inquiring look with a simple nod; she recognized the boy immediately as Jared Wong.

During the past few months since Lothor's attack, Tori had often wondered whether there were more survivors of Lothor's ambush. She was fairly sure that there must be, for not every single ninja could have been on school grounds that fateful day. However, they had never come across any. Until now. It should have been a joyous occasion under normal circumstances, but in this case, Tori felt nothing but cold contempt for the ninja who was the cause of Cam's precarious state.

Motioning to the others to stay put, she silently left the van. When the dark-haired boy was almost at the door, she stepped from behind the vehicle and into the young man's path. "Hi, Jared." It took a huge effort to keep her face blank. "Long time no see."

The Water ninja stopped dead in his tracks. Tori took grim satisfaction from that brief moment when Jared's eyes widened in shock at the sight of her. But he composed himself quickly and an instant later, his face showed nothing but feigned confusion.

"What's the matter?" she asked innocently. "You've already forgotten me? It's only been a few months since our academy disappeared."

Jared blinked. "No…no, I'm just surprised to see you, that's all." He cocked his head and added somewhat lamely, "Uh...You, you're _Tori_ , right?"

 _As if you didn't know._ Tori forced herself to smile at him. "Yeah."

Jared's eyes suddenly flickered to a spot over her shoulder and narrowed in suspicion. The others must have stepped up behind her.

"Whuzzup, Jared," Shane growled. The Asian boy's shoulders visibly tensed at the barely contained rage in the Air ninja's voice, but he was nonetheless trying to keep up his nonchalant attitude.

"Do I know you?"

"How come we haven't seen you on the school grounds, Jared?" Dustin injected, ignoring the Water ninja's question. "I mean, you obviously know that the academy's gone, right? How come you never made an effort to find any of the other Wind ninjas?"

"I...I've been there," Jared replied warily. "But I didn't see no one, so..."

"So _what_? You're not even wondering what happened to your school, your teachers, your fellow ninjas?" Blake snapped, coming up next to Shane. "You just decided to turn your back and move on to other things?" The Thunder ninja glowered at Jared. "More _profitable_ things, maybe?"

"What are you talking about?" Jared's eyes now darted between the four angry teens.

Shane stepped forward. "As if you didn't know, traitor!" The Air ninja fixed him with a smoldering glare while he advanced one more step, drawing himself up to his full height. The others followed and Jared was beginning to take on the look of a cornered animal. He kept on backing away, until he suddenly realized with a start that the four ninjas positioned around him had effectively maneuvered him towards the alleyway next to the video store. His eyes frantically scanned the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street and beyond, but Tori interpreted his look correctly and moved smoothly to the right, effectively blocking his escape route.

Next to Shane, Dustin apparently had enough of the word games. "How long you been running drugs for Morales, Jared?"

At this, the Asian boy visibly flinched, stumbled backwards a few more steps and dropped his food. Whether it was an instinctive reaction or meant as a last futile attempt at intimidation, Jared reached up and tore at his street clothes, revealing his ninja uniform at the same time as he went into a defensive stance. "I'm not telling you anything!"

Shane merely raised his eyebrows. "Oh, so you wanna play hardball, huh? All right."

And in one fluid motion, the four teens cast their own garments aside, displaying their respective ninja suits. The tension in the alleyway instantly rose tenfold as four young men and one young woman stood staring at each other with fists raised.

What transpired next happened within a mere few blinks of an eye. Apparently realizing that risking a physical confrontation with four angry ninjas would indeed be a foolish thing to do, Jared suddenly took one more step back and whipped his head around. The buildings around and behind him were not particularly high - three stories at the most. An easy task, even for a first-year ninja student, as long as he had adequate streaking skills.

Jared's intentions dawned on the three Wind ninjas and Blake almost immediately, but by the time they lunged forward, Jared had already broken one of the most sacred rules of the Wind Ninja Academy: Never use your powers in public.

In broad daylight and in plain view of any potential observers, he streaked to the top of the building behind him and away in a blur of blue. The Rangers, after only the briefest moment of stunned disbelief, had no choice but to give chase.

One ninja trying to outstreak four was pretty hard to do, but Jared Wong proved to be quite competent in this particular ninja skill. He had, however, not been prepared to have some very determined fellow ninjas on his heels and soon found out that it was next to impossible to shake them.

The ninjas, for their part, quickly realized that Jared had neither a solid escape plan nor a clear route, for his streak soon took on a random pattern of zigzagging and evasive maneuvers all across town. It was becoming obvious that the traitorous ninja was trying to change his strategy to losing his pursuers by attempting to find a hiding spot rather than trying to outstreak them much longer.

Even through the blur of their break-neck speed, Tori could sense the other Water ninja's incipient exhaustion; he was beginning to feel the effects of prolonged streaking and wouldn't be able to keep this up much longer.

Jared promptly confirmed her assumption when he abruptly twisted and veered to the left, towards the not-so-distant, snow-capped triple peaks of Misty Mountain, Blue Bay County's popular winter ski resort.

As the mountain range rapidly drew closer, Jared showed no signs of slowing down and the high-speed pursuit went straight up the mountain, past several gondola and chair lifts, until the ninjas came to a stop behind the top base of a chair-lift on one of the more popular slopes. They only lingered for a moment to catch their breaths. Jared was nowhere to be seen.

"Tori, Blake, you go this way." Shane jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Search around the lift. Dustin and I will check over there." He nodded towards a large log building a few yards away that was flanked by two smaller ones. A wide sun deck clearly identified the larger building as a lodge.

"Looking like this?" Tori said, indicating their ninja suits, but Shane just shrugged.

"Not much of a choice now, since our clothes are back in the alley, and with our luck, they have probably been dragged away by some hobos by now."

They fanned out in search of their quarry. Thankfully, on a Wednesday afternoon, there weren't many skiers around and no one seemed to have seen them streaking in. A small ski school was assembling near the ridge of the nearest run and a couple of snowboarders were just getting onto the slope. Jared, however, was neither among them nor visible anywhere else.

While they stomped through the snow towards the lodge, Shane grimly recalled that only last week they had all made plans to come up to just this mountain to do some sledding. Plans that, like many before, were thwarted by yet another one of Lothor's endless attacks.

"You think he might have kept streaking?" Dustin wondered aloud, but Shane shook his head.

"No, this guy's only a first-year student, too, and that was a pretty long distance we just covered. I know _I'm_ just about worn out, so there's no way _he_ could've gone any further." The dark-skinned ninja's eyes ceaselessly scanned his surroundings as he spoke. "No, he's got to be around here somewhere."

They rounded the corner of one of the smaller log buildings and the first thing they saw was an elderly man in a skiing suit trying to drag himself out of a mound of snow with a strangled curse. Instinctively, they ran to the man's aid, grasping his arms as they hauled him to his feet. Dustin held on to the man's arm a moment longer to steady him. "'Scuse me, but did you see an Asian guy coming through here?" he asked the agitated skier and waved a hand in the direction of his chest. "Kinda dressed like this."

The old man cast him a dark glare. "Are you kiddin'? He was the one who knocked me down!" He brushed the snow off his pants with one hand while gesticulating with the other. "Your friend comes running around the corner here like all the hounds of hell are after him, slams right into me - and keeps on going! Barely even looks back. Not a 'Sorry' or anything. Kids nowadays, they got no respect, not like when I was growing up..."

"Believe me, he's not our friend," Shane injected, fixing the man with an intent look. "Sir, which way did he go?"

"Behind the lodge." The old man pointed with his chin, curiosity now beginning to replace his irritation. "You boys wanna tell me what's..." But Shane and Dustin were already sprinting in the direction he had indicated.

"Thanks!"

"Sorry about the 'knocking down' part," Dustin called over his shoulder just before he disappeared behind the lodge right after Shane, leaving the skier standing alone in the snow. The old man cocked his head. "Well, at least _someone's_ got some manners left," he mumbled before he stiffly shuffled off.

 

_**The chase…** _

The first thing Shane saw after speeding around the corner was a wide, open area behind the lodge that branched out after several yards, each trail ending in a ridge to a skiing slope. One of them was roped off and marked 'closed', the other one was wide open and labeled with a blue wooden cross indicating an intermediate slope.

"There!" Dustin cried and Shane spun around just in time to catch the last glimpse of a dark head disappearing over the closed-off ridge. As he raced towards the top of the slope, he heard Dustin's voice behind him, speaking into his morpher.

"Guys, behind the lodge! He just went down one of the slopes. Hurry!"

Jared was already several yards down the trail. He had strapped on a snowboard and was rapidly drawing away. Shane let out a frustrated growl. _Where did he get the board from?_

He saw the answer in the form of two more snowboards sticking out of a mound of snow that was stacked all along the back wall of the lodge. The Air ninja made a beeline for them, his brunet teammate right on his heels.

"Not enough of them," Dustin cried, dismayed, and his head jerked around in search for any other usable skiing equipment. "Aw man, how come _James Bond_ always finds enough of the hardware he needs when he chases the bad guys?"

"Because you're forgetting that James Bond usually works alone." Shane hurriedly jerked one of the boards from the snow pile.

Tori and Blake came racing around the corner and the Air ninja promptly tossed the board to Tori before he pulled the second one out for himself. "Sorry guys, but Tori and I have more experience with boards," he said to the Earth and Thunder ninja while Tori was already strapping her boots into the board's bindings.

"Sure, leave the bikers behind." Dustin made a face. "Shoot, where is a snowmobile when you need one?" he mumbled.

Blake's eyes scanned the area, obviously in search for an answer to just that question.

"Ha!" He pointed to the side of a storage shed besides the lodge where the front half of the much sought-after snowmobile was barely visible from the angle they were standing.

Dustin wasn't consoled. "But that's only one, too!"

"We'll _make_ it a two-seater, come on!" Blake dashed off in the direction of the shed.

"Hey, Dustin, give us a push, will ya?" Shane cried over his shoulder, poised precariously on the snowboard, and the Earth ninja hurriedly obliged. A mighty shove sent the Air and Water ninja forward and onto the steeply tilted slope. The last thing Shane saw as he risked a look back was navy-blue energy sparking from Blake's hand in the Thunder ninja's obvious attempt to hotwire the snowmobile.

Shane had never been on a snowboard before, so he automatically went for adjusting his balance the way he normally did on his skateboard. That worked and he leaned forward, instinctively going for the most momentum and speed by trying to take as little turns as possible and keeping his board as straight downhill as he dared. A quick look to his left showed Tori doing the same. Their tactic proved right and they quickly gained velocity.

Luckily, this was a well-kept slope and the snow had been pressed down and packed tight by many skiers before them, thus eliminating the worry of accidentally getting stuck in deep powder snow. To the left and right of them, the edges of the run were clearly marked by three feet of stacked snow and beyond that, dense woods prevailed. No way Jared could just pull off this slope and vanish into the woods. But at this rate, he _would_ reach the bottom of the slope well before them and escape among the many possible hiding places of the Misty Mountain ski resort, which was virtually a ghost town in the summer, but sure to be packed with skiers now. If Jared were to reach the end of the slope, he had a very good chance of vanishing into the crowd and be gone for good. He had already shown his skills in the art of disappearing a few days ago, after all.

Next to him, Tori was apparently thinking along the same lines, for the Blue Ranger was gesticulating towards the rapidly shrinking figure. "At this rate, we're not going to catch him before he reaches the bottom." she cried. "He's getting away, Shane!"

' _Not if I can help it,'_ Shane thought. "We need to find a way to slow him down," he called back, and at that very moment, his snowboard caught a patch of ice. For an instant, the board veered precariously and the Red Ranger frantically waved his arms to keep his balance. The board slid again, forcing Shane to crouch and briefly place both hands on the snow-covered ground to right himself again. He came back up with a glove-full of snow - and a plan.

"Tori!"

When the Water ninja turned her head, he held out his snow-filled hand. "I have an idea..."

 

_**Wind and Snow…** _

Many yards ahead, Jared risked a look back up the slope and was relieved to see two of his pursuers lagging far behind. He couldn't see the other two, though, and that worried him. He leaned as far forward as he dared, milking his snowboard's speed for all its worth. In the distance, he could see the bottom base of a ski lift and behind that, the resort town itself. He had maybe half a mile to go. He could make it, no need to even look back any more. He concentrated on the terrain in front of him, a victorious grin beginning to spread across his face.

Until he heard the faint rumble behind him.

He cast a look over his shoulder - and blinked in stunned disbelief. A five-foot snowball was plowing towards him at ridiculous speed, growing and gaining mass even during the second that Jared was staring at it, and two things were immediately clear to him. First - that snowball was man-made, meaning the Water _bitch_ was using her powers against him. Second - no question that the Air _bastard_ was pushing the snowball towards him using his wind element. Jared's heart began to pound and he veered to the left, narrowly escaping the now six-foot snowball. His board wobbled with the momentum, and for a moment he had to focus all his concentration on regaining his balance. When he looked back up, a wall of white was bearing down on him. The snowball had _turned_! _How in the…?_

And even as his brain was coming to the logical conclusion that there was no way to escape, his defiant soul kept on searching for any possible way out – or at least an explanation for why a snowball would be able to change course by itself.

He arrived at the conclusion that the Air ninja must have been controlling it with wind gusts at the same instant as the huge mass of snow engulfed him.

Tori gave a victorious cry when she saw Jared disappear into the snowball.

"Yeah! Strike, baby!" she heard Shane yell at the same time as the sound of a rapidly approaching engine came to her ears. A look over her shoulder revealed Blake and Dustin speeding down the slope on their snowmobile.

' _Took 'em long enough…'_ Tori grinned.

The snowball had lost most of its momentum due to the collision with Jared and was now slowly rolling to a stop as the slope leveled out a bit. Of the evasive ninja only a part of his snowboard and a hand could be seen sticking out of the snow.

Fortunately, the hand wiggled as she skidded to a halt next to it and the blonde ninja breathed a sigh of relief. Shane had already cast off his board's bindings and was digging into the snow with his bare hands. Tori joined his efforts and before long, Jared's soaked head was revealed. Coughing and gasping for air, the Water ninja looked at them, and in his eyes they saw defeat.

Dustin and Blake arrived a moment later, eager to help free Jared from his icy prison.

"Dudes, that looked like so much fun," Dustin exclaimed as he hopped off the snowmobile and joined his teammates. "I _have got_ to try this!"

Shane, Tori and Blake all jerked their heads in his direction, and Dustin found himself on the receiving end of three identical looks of incredulity. He snickered. "The snowboarding, guys, not the snowball ride."


	9. Chapter 9

Hunter had no idea what time it was. He wasn't wearing a watch and the walls of Cam's room were devoid of clocks.

Not that it really mattered; the only thing that _did_ matter was how much of it Cam had left. Hunter looked down at the unmoving form on the bed and tried to take some comfort from the steady beeping of the EKG machine. It didn't work.

He let out a deep sigh; those past few months he'd had to live with constant battles, had to walk a constant high wire in this war for the fate of the Earth, had stared down the most hideous monsters, yet he had never been as afraid as he was at this very moment. The only way he could have been more terrified was if it were Blake lying in that bed.

The blond ninja rose and went to the window, gazing out over the parking lot. He was exhausted. As much as he forced his drooping eyelids to stay open, he could feel himself losing the fight with weariness. He propped his hip onto the sill and leaned his head against the window jamb. _If I could close my eyes for just a moment…_

The reprieve lasted for only seconds before a loud beeping noise was roughly pulling him out of a sleepy reverie. Alarmed, he spun around; the sounds came from Cam's bed, or more specifically, the EKG machine. Cam was still motionless, his face completely inert, but on the monitor, the previously green and steady rhythm of the heart monitor now displayed a red line of jagged irregularity. A moment later, while Hunter was watching in frozen horror, Cam's blood pressure line and pulse rate changed from green to red as well. The samurai amulet began to glow brightly.

Hunter was on the other side of the bed in an instant, frantically pressing the alarm button on the bed's intercom, trying to keep his hands from shaking and his mind from blacking out from fear.

Suddenly, the short, urgent beeps turned into one continuous sound. Death's signature tune.

On Cam's chest, the samurai amulet began to pulse wildly and Hunter didn't want to look, didn't want to turn away from Cam's face to confirm what he already knew he was going to see on the monitor.

Flatline.

"NO, oh God, no, CAM!" Hunter reacted purely on instinct. Before he even knew what he was doing, his hands were already ripping apart the front of Cam's hospital gown. "Hold on Cam please don't do this to me hang in there please I love you please oh God..."

Crimson energy crackled across the palm of Hunter's right hand as he pressed it against Cam's rib cage. The samurai's body jerked as the Thunder energy surged into his body. The monitor's flat line jumped for an instant before it went slack again.

A strange sound came to Hunter's ears, a cross between a wail and a sob. His subconscious mind was telling him that he was hearing himself, but he didn't care. He was about to pump one more jolt of energy into Cam when the door behind him flew open. Half a dozen hospital personnel dashed into the room, Dr. McAllister in the lead, and suddenly the room was filled with a flurry of controlled yet urgent activity. Hunter was gently but insistently pushed out of the way while one orderly immediately began to administer CPR. The Crimson Ranger was of half a mind to fight back when, through his tear-blurred vision, he suddenly found himself face to face with Dr. McAllister.

"Doc..."

The physician grasped his shoulders. "We'll take it from here," was all he said. He did not reassure Hunter with the false promise that Cam would be just fine, but this tall, balding man's aura of quiet competence somehow managed to wrap around Hunter, enveloping him in a thin blanket of comfort. Unfortunately, the incessant monotonic beeping of the EKG machine and the hectic activity all around Cam's bed quickly counteracted that feeling.

As Dr. McAllister moved to join his staff, Hunter said. "Doc...don't take off his amulet." He intoned his words with an intense gaze. "It's his energy source. It helps him."

The physician nodded curtly before he turned and began to bark orders to the nurses.

Weak-kneed and nauseous with worry, Hunter retreated until he stood with his back pressed to the wall, just far enough not to be in the way. With three people crowding around each side of Cam's bed, Hunter could only catch occasional glimpses of his partner.

Dr. McAllister had positioned himself to Cam's left side. "Debbie, give me some stats."

The nurse closest to the EKG machine, a stocky, middle-aged and competent-looking blonde, replied promptly. "Ventricular fibrillation. Flatlined about sixty seconds ago."

"Vitals?"

"Pulse is faint, blood pressure 70 over 40 and falling!" The nurse cast McAllister an urgent look.

"All right everybody, first things first – heart rhythm and blood pressure. Get me 3 milligrams of atropine and get the paddles ready," Dr. McAllister ordered, then grabbed a fold of Cam's already ripped hospital gown. He cast Hunter a quick, yet scrutinizing glance, but the young man by the wall didn't notice it. He had his eyes firmly fixed on his partner.

"Yes, Doctor." Nurse Debbie turned to lend a hand to the closest orderly who was already wrestling a mobile defibrillator into position next to Cam's bed. Moments later, the machine was plugged in and powering up. A second orderly handed McAllister a syringe filled with clear fluid and the physician injected Cam with the blood pressure-raising medication while another nurse covered his chest and the defibrillator paddles with a conductive gel. Meanwhile, another nurse was inserting a breathing tube down Cam's throat.

McAllister nodded to his staff. "Let's start him off with 200 volts."

Discarding the syringe in favor of the defibrillator paddles, the physician pressed the paddles firmly on Cam's chest, one beneath the clavicle, the other just below the nipple.

"Clear!" Dr. McAllister cried and everyone immediately backed away from the bed.

"Charge!"

Cam's torso arched upwards as the electric jolt slammed into his body.

McAllister was still holding the paddles when Nurse Debbie was already pressing her fingers to Cam's neck and a stethoscope to his chest.

"Pulse?" the physician barked.

The nurse listened for a moment, then wordlessly shook her head.

McAllister was stone-faced as he positioned the paddles again. "Let's try it again, 250 volts."

Cam's body jerked even more violently under the second charge. This time, Dr. McAllister didn't even address the nurse afterwards, who was holding her stethoscope to Cam's chest again. He simply looked between her and the still unmoving line on the EKG monitor. The tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife.

A few feet away, forced to watch the horrifying spectacle from the sidelines, Hunter could do nothing but hug himself around the middle and try hard to somehow contain the fear, helplessness and anguish churning inside him. He clenched his teeth and wished pestilence, eternal damnation and the electric chair on Julio Morales.

The next few seconds felt like hours, but at last the absolute silence was broken by a single beep from the EKG monitor, followed almost immediately by several more. The line on the screen was moving. Simultaneously, Nurse Debbie, who was now holding onto Cam's wrist, looked up and smiled.

"We have a pulse. He's back."

Half a dozen sighs of relief sounded through the room, but Hunter's was the loudest of them all. Doctor McAllister and his nurses kept on working on Cam for quite a while longer, attaching him to several life-supporting machines. Eventually – their tasks completed - one nurse after the other left the room, until only Hunter and the doctor were left. Hunter was still frozen in place propped up against the wall, staring in dismay at his boyfriend.

Seeing Cam hooked up to multiple IV's, the heart monitor and the respirator, Hunter was painfully aware that his partner was now being kept alive only by those machines. Even a glance at the amulet didn't give him hope anymore since its glow had diminished to only the faintest shimmer.

Hunter bit his lip in order to suppress the sob that was building up inside him. He kept on gazing at his nearly lifeless partner. Hell existed, he was sure of that now. And even though they fought the alien Hellhounds on an almost daily basis, he now did not picture Satan with a leather mask anymore, but instead with olive complexion, slicked-back black hair and a tailored Armani suit.

Hunter had destroyed countless monsters and kelzaks in the name of the forces of Good, but he had never killed a human being. Now his hand curled into a fist and he stared at it, mesmerized. He was ready to kill one now.

He was propelled out of his dark reverie by a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Dr. McAllister gazing solemnly at him.

"He's stabilized for now."

For a moment Hunter simply stared at him until the meaning of the physician's words sunk in: Cam was still alive. He had known that, of course, but hearing it from McAllister made it definite. The Crimson Ranger wanted to throw his arms around the tall doctor and thank him, to somehow articulate his relief and gratefulness, but all he could manage was a mute and weak nod.

Dr. McAllister, apparently no stranger to the effects of these kinds of extreme situations on a person, only gave him a small smile. "It may not seem like it, but Cam was actually lucky we only had to shock him twice," he said. "Normally, we have to defibrillate four to six times; it's almost like he had some help."

And while Hunter's hand reflexively twitched, the physician squeezed his shoulder reassuringly and turned to follow his nurses out the door.

For a long minute after everyone had cleared from the room, Hunter simply stood at the foot of the bed, staring at Cam's unmoving form. He had no idea how he had managed to remain upright and in control of his bowels throughout the resuscitation. He knew that for the rest of his life, he would carry the memories of what happened in this room with him.

He turned and retrieved his chair from where it had been kicked out of the way, pushed it as close to the side of the bed as possible and collapsed into it. The horrors of the past half hour were finally settling into his bones, making them suddenly as heavy as lead. Hunter raised the palms of his hands to his eyes, rubbing them vigorously. The eerie silence in the room after all the frantic movement and urgent voices had such a dream-like quality that he was half expecting to find Cam sitting up in bed, grinning and saying 'April Fools', but when he took his hands away from his eyes, Cam hadn't moved. He was as still as before, his chest rising and falling in accordance with the respirator and his face was as pale as that of any geisha's.

Hunter leaned forward and took his boyfriend's unresponsive hand in his. Dr. McAllister had been able to bring Cam back this time, but Hunter knew that if Cam coded again, no doctor in the world would be able to perform this miracle once more.

A sob tore lose from Hunter's throat as despair and blood were pumping in equal measures through his body. Slowly, deliberately, he put his head down until his forehead touched cool bed sheets and, in the solitude of room 410, the blond Thunder ninja finally relinquished the control he'd had maintained up until now.

Hunter wept.

Outside, the purple twilight was slowly drowning in a sea of dark blue.

 

_**Interrogation and Persuasion...** _

Sensei sensed his students arriving at the secret entrance of Ninja Ops before they even set foot on the stone stairs. Shane had called ahead over his morpher to inform Kanoi of Jared's successful capture and to ask for further guidance as to what to do with him. Sensei had ordered them to bring Jared to Ninja Ops and although the team was not at all comfortable with that idea, they had complied.

The sounds of boots were drawing closer and a moment later, Shane and Dustin stepped into the room, leading a blindfolded and white-faced Jared Wong between them. The sounds of their captive's chattering teeth were rebounding off the command center's walls and his sodden boots left wet prints with every step he took.

Jared's involuntary time inside Tori's snowball, brief as it was, had nevertheless left him completely soaked and by the time they had arrived at Ninja Ops, his entire body was shaking like a sapling in a storm. Apparently, hypothermia was a serious threat even toWater ninjas.

With gestures alone, Sensei directed them, and Dustin and Shane steered the Water ninja straight towards the only space safe enough to keep Jared inside Ninja Ops; the practice room. Sensei motioned for Tori to stay behind, and on her teacher's orders Tori fetched some of Cam's clothes: a green cotton sweat suit and thick socks as well as a woolen blanket.

Guarded by the male ninjas, Jared clumsily changed into the dry garments while Tori was busying herself in the kitchenette, preparing tea. By the time she returned to the practice room with a steaming mug, Jared was sitting on the tatami mats, dressed in green and hugging the blanket around him. He stoically avoided eye contact with anyone and Tori had to virtually hold the tea under his nose before he realized what she was offering him. He cast her a wary look but took the mug from her after a moment with a silent nod of thanks. Tori let him take a sip of the hot beverage while she lowered herself onto the mats and resolutely fixed her eyes on him.

"We have some unfinished conversation," she began without preamble.

"What makes you think I'm any more willing to talk now?" he mumbled, but his defiance seemed half-hearted.

Shane was the one who replied. "Well, considering the position you're in right now, I really don't think you have much of a choice," the Air ninja declared, pushing away from the wall he had been leaning against and crouching down next to Jared. Once he was at eye level with the huddled Water ninja, he added, "And you might want to remember that you are currently being kept warm by wearing the clothes of the man who is on the brink of death because of you. Any normal, warm-blooded human being might feel a stab of guilty conscience right about now."

Suddenly, a disembodied voice sounded through the small chamber. "Shane makes a good point, Jared. It is high time we address my son's welfare."

Jared flinched and jerked his head around, clearly startled and confused. His eyes darted between the Wind ninjas and the stone walls. Shane elbowed him to get his attention, nodding towards the floor. "Down there, dude."

Jared followed his gaze - and promptly dropped the tea cup he was still holding at the sight of the robed guinea pig standing before him. With eyes as wide as saucers, he stared at the figure for a long moment before he could find his voice.

"Sensei Watanabe?"

The guinea pig nodded and Jared looked up, his stunned gaze moving from Tori to Dustin and back as if to confirm that he was not hallucinating. The Wind ninjas looked back at him, completely unperturbed.

"Wh...what happened to you?" he finally stammered.

Sensei took a few steps forward. "I have been rendered into this form by the same forces of evil that have been wreaking havoc on Blue Bay Harbor for the past few months."

"Huh?"

"The monster attacks, man," Shane elaborated with an exasperated wave of his hand. "The freaks who've been attacking innocent civilians all around town. We fight them, destroy them, they grow big, we blow them up again..."

"The mastermind behind all these attacks is the same villain who has also abducted the Wind and Thunder academies. In the unsuccessful process of thwarting the attack, an evil spell was cast upon me and I have been stuck in the form you see before you ever since," Sensei said, not delving into any further explanations. "We have been combating his evil creations ever since as well as devising plans to rescue the students and teachers."

"Unlike other people," Blake mumbled just loud enough to be heard from his spot by the entryway. It earned him several grim smiles from his teammates and a half-stern look from his teacher.

"But trying to keep the monsters out of the city and protecting the people is now going to be next to impossible, since you've taken out our tech support," Dustin chipped in with clearly audible sarcasm.

Jared didn't reply, just looked around at all of them with a sudden expression of shock and dismay as the revelation of the effects of his actions finally seemed to seep in. His shoulders sagged and he swallowed heavily. A dead silence hung in the room for a long moment until Jared slowly lifted his head.

"Sensei, what...what exactly _has_ happened to our school?"

"You really have no inkling as to the academy's fate?" Sensei asked, his gaze probing.

"No, sir, I didn't have any classes scheduled until late that afternoon and when I got there, there was nothing but rubble and everyone was gone..." Jared shrugged helplessly. The ninjas cast each other dubious looks, but remained silent.

"I believe you, Jared," Sensei said, "but now is not the time to go into lengthy accounts. There are more pressing matters at hand."

"Yeah, like where Morales is keeping the antidote," Shane growled.

"I…I can't tell you that."

"Why not?"

Jared hesitated. "No one snitches on Julio Morales. He's too powerful. If he finds me…"

"Number one: he's not going to find you _here_ ," Dustin said. "Number two: You've got no one to blame but yourself for the mess you're in right now, dude."

"Hey, you don't understand…"

"What we _understand_ is that you betrayed and dishonored your school, and that you've got some serious making up to do," Tori cut in, her usual calm demeanor now practically radiating disdain.

"I've always been a good student," Jared tried to defend himself. "I never meant to disgrace my school."

"Should have thought about that before you decided to use the Wind Academy as a stashing ground for your dope money," Shane sneered.

"That was only that one time," Jared exclaimed, looking indignant. "And I only did it because I couldn't afford to miss night training again, I had already overslept once..." The ninja's eyes glanced off his teacher.

"...and I told you that, if you missed class again, I would have to re-evaluate your dedication to ninja training," Sensei Watanabe injected. "Yes, I remember that incident."

"Well, you know what, Jared?" Dustin suddenly spoke up. "The day before the school was taken, we got that same speech from Sensei because we were late, too. Only the reason _we_ were late wasn't because we were hustling dope."

"I've never sold drugs," Jared snapped. "I only made deliveries and most of the times I didn't even know _what_ I was delivering."

"Oh please." Blake let out an exasperated groan. "Don't even try to feed us this 'I had no idea what I was doing' crap."

"You've got no right to judge me," the boy suddenly burst out. "At the end of the day _you_ all go home to your families in your nice, comfortable houses, white picket fence and all, but some of us are not so lucky, okay? I'm seventeen and I'm still sharing a room with my sister, because my parents can't afford to move into a bigger apartment. I have to take the bus to school dressed in Wal-Mart clothes while my classmates are driving their own cars and are all decked out in designer gear." The words were gushing out of Jared, his voice quickly rising. "Do you have any idea how humiliating it is having to listen to your friends raving about all these new video games and you can't say nothing because you can't even afford a Playstation?" Jared Wong was meeting the ninjas glare for glare now. "I gotta make my money whichever way I can."

"And some overtime at the video store just didn't cut it for you, I guess." Blake remarked, his voice thick with sarcasm.

"Do you know how much overtime that would be? I make minimum wage, man!"

Tori cocked her head. "You never struck me as someone so weak-minded that it means so much to you to keep up with the crowd, Jared." At that, Jared's gaze flickered up to her briefly and something was glinting in his eyes. It was too brief, however, for her to be sure whether it was guilt or defiance. Then his eyes went back to the floor.

"I want to be able to have nice things," Jared told the tatami mats. "What's wrong with wanting nice stuff?"

"Nothing wrong with wanting it, dude, but you gotta go about it the right way," Dustin said.

"And running drugs is _definitely_ not it." Shane shook his head, looking incredulous and disgusted at the same time.

"None of you understands, I can already see that."

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Blake exclaimed, throwing up his hands. "You know, there's kids out there who get their clothes from the Salvation Army! Maybe you should think about that before you whine about not being able to afford Sean John leather jackets and Nike sneakers, you spoiled brat!"

Jared began to stutter. "I...I'm just saying that..."

"Yeah, sure, Jared. Life just sucks so much for you, right?" Dustin cut him off, and there was an indignant look on the usually laid-back Earth ninja's face. "You have no privacy because you don't have your own room! You know what? Be glad that you don't have to sleep at a shelter or a safehouse like other kids who are homeless or whose parents beat them."

"That's right," Shane fixed the Asian boy with a glare. "Tell me: Do your parents fight all the time, or does your father come home drunk every day and smack you and your sister around? Have you ever gone to bed hungry, huh? Or does someone in your family have an incurable illness, the medical bills are through the roof and you can't afford to buy the medication anymore? _Tell me_!"

The volley of questions obviously caught Jared off guard. "Uh...no." He blinked.

Shane brought his face close to Jared's, staring into his eyes. "Then you ain't got no excuse for doing what you did," the Air ninja said with disdain. The two young men glared at each other and Sensei took that moment to step in.

"Rangers, if you don't mind, I think I'd like some words with Jared in private." The dismissal was evident in the guinea pig's voice and although none of them were eager to leave Sensei by himself with his traitorous student, they also knew better than to argue with their teacher. So, amid many glares and much grumbling, they slowly filed out of the practice room and ascended the stairs. Shane was the last one through the doorway, therefore he still caught Sensei's words.

"Jared, let us speak of life, shall we?"

The practice room did not have a door, but it also only had one way out and that was through the one doorway and up the dozen steps into Ninja Ops' command room. So naturally, the Rangers re-assembled themselves on top of the stairs and plopped down onto the first step. If Jared tried to make a break for it, he wouldn't get far.

Shane ran his hands through his hair with a frustrated growl. "I can't believe he's down there having tea with that traitor and _chit-chatting_ ," he exclaimed. "He acts like he's got all the time in the world when his son's virtually on life support in the hospital! Time's the one thing we _don't_ have! We need to move, find Morales. Doesn't he remember that?" His gaze glanced off Tori's, who was sitting beside him.

"Of course he knows that," she said and fixed her friend with a pointed look. "You know, Shane, for a leader you still have lots to learn about diplomacy." She held up her hand, stifling Shane's reply and cushioned the somewhat harsh words with a gentle gaze. "Jared's been defiant ever since we confronted him by the video store. So do you think that putting him through Chinese thumb torture, or whatever you want to do to him, would yield any results?"

"But..."

"Sensei is doing the right thing, he's down there appealing to Jared's conscience right now and that is going to be more effective than anything _we_ can come up with. And if anyone can break through to him and achieve results with words alone, it's Sensei."

Tori delivered those words with a hopeful confidence that showed her deep trust in her mentor and almost against his will, Shane felt their effects. He relaxed his shoulders and took a deep breath.

"All right," he said, leaning forward, elbows on his knees. "So we wait."

A silence fell over the four teens as they sat and waited and Ninja Ops became perfectly quiet. Yet even in this utter stillness, the voices from the practice room were too faint to make out.

Clearly, Sensei – knowing that the Rangers were hovering within earshot – intended to keep whatever was being said strictly between him and his dishonored student.

Unable to do more than just sit and listen to the unintelligible murmurings from below, the Rangers did just that for a while - until Blake stirred.

"Well, since we're on forced downtime here…" The Thunder Ranger took out his cell phone and pushed his brother's speed-dial button.

 

_**Brother talk...** _

His phone's chime jerked Hunter out of an uncomfortable semi-doze. He had nodded off with his head on Cam's mattress, still clutching his partner's hand. With a guilty side-glance at Cam, he answered Blake's call.

He barely got to say 'Hello?' before the younger Bradley was already launching into an account of the past few hours. He ended his report with, "...so Sensei virtually kicked us out of the practice room and the two of them have been down there talking for the past fifteen minutes or so." There was a heavy sigh, then, "Man, I really hope Sensei's gonna get through to this guy somehow. He's the only lead we got left right now."

There was a pause on the other line and Hunter closed his eyes, concentrating on taking in a calming breath. Blake, having apparently realized that this implication might not have been the smartest thing to say since Hunter wasn't two feet away from his dying partner, quickly added, "Of course if anyone could get through to Jared, it _is_ Sensei, so I'm sure he'll come up with something really soon, so just bear with us, okay, bro?"

"God Blake, hurry." This actually wasn't what Hunter had intended to say, but somehow it had slipped out anyway, and the effect was prompt.

"Something happen?" Blake's voice was instantly alarmed.

Hunter cast a glance at Cam's bed. For a brief moment Hunter considered telling Blake about Cam's coding, but decided against it. It was bad enough that he had had to experience this ordeal; no use upsetting Blake and the rest of the team with a recount.

So when he spoke again, he told Blake only, "It's getting worse, bro. I don't know how much longer he can hold on."

There was a brief silence at the other end of the line and Hunter could almost see his brother's worry-lined face. At length, Blake said, "We'll move out the instant Sensei comes up with something, _anything_ we can use. In the meantime, you've got to hang in there, both of you, you hear?"

"Yeah, I hear you."

"All right, man. Look, I should get back to the others, just in case." There was a pause, followed by a quiet, "Keep your head up, okay, bro?"

"Yeah, all right," was all Hunter could say. It came out raspy and unconvincing. "Keep me in the loop, bro."

The moment he hung up his cell, Hunter wanted nothing more then to scream. The urge was so great he could feel his chest and throat constrict and it took quite a while, not to mention a great deal of self-control, not to give in to it. Hunter had never felt so utterly alone.

It was also way too damn quiet in this room. Apart from the beeping of the EKG monitor, the silence that hung all around him was beginning to take on weight, pressing down and up against him.

Hunter hated it, the silence, the loneliness, the sigh of Cam's artificially ventilated body, the fear that he would never be able to see those dark almond eyes look back at him again...Hunter turned and suddenly found himself by the window, one hand already wrapped around the window lock. He really, really needed some fresh air, but of course the window was locked. So he pressed his forehead against the cool glass instead and stayed in this position for a long minute before he returned to his plastic chair. He took Cam's hand into his again and did the only other thing he could do: Wait - and hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big Thank You to Cmar and Weesta for their valuable input with the hospital defibrillation scene!


	10. Chapter 10

Coincidentally, the exact thing Blake had told Hunter would probably be happening, actually did come to pass a minute after the younger Bradley had rejoined his teammates. Sensei suddenly appeared in the doorway of the practice room, looking calm and serene. The Rangers jumped up, ready to bound down the stairs, but their teacher held them back with a simple paw gesture.

"I would need some paper and a pencil, please," was all he said. Tori shot off to retrieve the requested items while Sensei waited, silent and expressionless.

"Be ready, Rangers," he said quietly when he took the notepad from the Blue Ranger. "It won't be long now."

This statement proved correct, for about five minutes later, Sensei Watanabe reappeared in the doorway again, alone and clutching a sheet of paper. Two somersaults brought him up the stairs and onto Shane's knee. He held out the paper to the Red Ranger.

"This will tell you how to find Julio Morales' secret drug lab," he said. "The antidote is also there. Morales keeps it in a safe in his office."

Shane's expression was a mixture of relief and awe. "Sensei, how did you…"

"Sometimes a sympathetic ear is more effective than the best interrogation procedures," the tiny teacher said. "We spoke of many things. Life, family, ninja honor, the future..." Sensei looked around him and into the faces of his students. "Jared has strayed from the righteous path, but I have provided him with a light to guide him back onto that road again. I agreed to absolve him of his wrongdoings and guaranteed him re-admittance into the Wind Academy...if he agreed to break off all of his drug contacts and reveal Morales' hideout." Sensei Watanabe spread his paws. "Once I was able to make him see the errors of his ways and assured him that he has yet a place among the Wind ninja students, Jared was eager to make up for all the harm he has caused. Not only to Cam and us, but also to the Wind Ninja Academy as a whole as well as his own reputation. Much still remains to be discussed between us, but for now Jared has shown his repentance by taking the first step into the right direction – with this." The Wind teacher nodded at the map in Shane's hands, then hopped off the Air ninja's knee.

"But Sensei, are you sure you can trust him?" Blake's face showed his skepticism. Sensei turned his gentle gaze upon his student. "I think that his change of heart is genuine, yes. I also believe that everyone deserves a second chance, Blake." The rest of Sensei's sentence remained unspoken, but was conveyed in the guinea pig's eyes. _Just like you and Hunter._

"And now you must move swiftly, Rangers," Sensei urged. "Jared said that Morales planned to remain at his hideaway until shortly before the rendezvous time at Orchid Park. It is now less than an hour until then."

Shane promptly leapt to his feet, clutching the paper. "All right, guys, let's go over this real quick with Jared, and then..." The Red Ranger's face was hard and determined. "...it's time to get that inbred sewer rat Morales"

 

_**Confrontations…** _

The hood of night had settled over the hidden valley, but the four figures creeping through the woods didn't mind; on the contrary - the night was the ninjas' friend.

The moonlight cast platinum light over the sheer wall of rock they had rappelled down. The moon glow was unfortunate as it had significantly increased their chances of being seen, but it was the only way to get to the hidden headquarters below. They had made their descent as rapidly as possible, then seemingly blended into the trees of the vast, primeval forest as soon as their boots had touched the frozen ground.

Shane looked behind him; four rappelling ropes were hanging from the edge of the cliff like dark vines; nothing they could do about those, unfortunately, other than hope that no night guard patrols would be spotting them.

For now, all they could do was to infiltrate Morales' lair as quickly and silently as possible, retrieve the antidote and retreat.

Ironically, they found themselves back on Misty Mountain, albeit on the other side of the ridge onto which they had chased Jared just a few hours ago. It prompted Shane to shake his head in frustrated amazement at the thought of just how close they had been to Julio Morales' hideout in the first place.

Next to him, Dustin shivered, but the Earth ninja did not voice his discomfort as his head continued to move, scanning the terrain in front of them. Shane could emphasize. They were wearing their black ninja uniforms and consequently, they were all cold. Their Ranger suits would have offered much better protection against the freezing weather, but the rainbow of colors would have been anything but inconspicuous. The evergreen-scented air was so cold, they could see their breaths with every exhalation. At least the rock wall behind them sheltered them from the wind, which would have been more than brutal at such a high elevation.

Blake, on the other hand, wasn't as reserved as Dustin. "Come on, guys, let's go," he mumbled, hands tucked beneath his armpits in a futile attempt to keep them warm. "This cold sucks."

In response, Shane reached into his jacket pocket. The waning moon cast just enough light for him to make out the sketches on Jared's hand-drawn map. It was poorly made, for Jared was not an artist, but it showed all the important landmarks they needed to find their target: the cliff wall, the stretch of forest and according to Jared, about half a mile north of their present location - at the edge of a concealed clearing - _the lodge_.

He took a moment to orient himself, then pointed to the right. "This way." They plunged through the thicket and traveled north. The forested mountain terrain was tricky to maneuver at night, but before long they could make out a break in the rows of trees up ahead. Beyond lay the glade and at the edge of it they would find Julio Morales' secret hideaway and laboratory, disguised as a secluded mountain retreat.

Jared had told them that the villa was accessible only via helicopter and a little-known logging road, therefore Morales' guards would not be expecting an approach from the forest. Nevertheless, they were careful to make as little noise as possible in their approach.

When the impressive-looking lodge came into view, it looked like the weekend ski retreat of an eccentric millionaire-recluse in every respect, complete with the sleek black form of an executive helicopter perched on the flat roof.

' _Ready to take its owner into the city within the hour, no doubt,'_ Shane thought grimly.

Hidden by the night, the ninjas watched and listened intently for a while, and suddenly the orange glimmer of a cigarette flared up from the shadows of the front door. It remained the only indication of a guard, though. Apparently, Julio Morales deemed his hideout safe enough not to splurge on more than just a skeleton crew for security.

Nonetheless, Shane didn't dare raise his voice beyond the faintest murmur. "All right, let's make our way to the back door. Get this over with quick and clean," he whispered. "Get inside, head straight for the office, find the antidote, get out."

"Your word in God's hearing aid," Dustin muttered.

The darkness under the canopy of spruce, pine and fir was near absolute and the ninjas reached the lodge, only mere yards from the edge of the woods, without detection. One more quick sprint, and they were pressed up against the plaster of the wall. Shane held his breath and listened, but the only sounds were those of the nocturnal forest. If there were guards in the back, they certainly weren't chatting with each other.

All senses engaged, they moved swiftly and silently through the tapestry of weak light and shadows until they arrived at the spot Jared had marked on his map; the service entrance in the back of the building. The door was secured by an electronic lock, but Jared had provided the code sequence and only a few seconds later, the ninjas entered Julio Morales' headquarters. They found themselves in a dark hallway. Shane didn't have to consult Jared's map again to know that to the left lay the drug lab whereas Morales' office was located at the end of the passage to the right. From the direction of the lab came the faint sounds of a radio playing. Apparently, the drug lord's scientists didn't like to cook up their synthetic dope in total quiet.

The ninjas turned right and crept forward down the corridor, hugging the wall, darker shades on dark background. They passed several plain and unmarked doors, but Julio's office could not be missed. The dark wooden door at the end of the hallway was more than obvious even if their eyes hadn't adjusted to the darkness yet. A narrow strip of light underneath it faintly illuminated the linoleum floor, and with a final nod to his friends, Shane pushed open the door.

A Hispanic man which could only be Julio Morales was seated behind a massive mahogany desk, reading through a stack of papers. He glanced up at the sound of the door opening. "Jared, where the hell have you..." The rest of the sentence died on his lips when he apparently realized that the black-clad figure in the doorway was not the boy he had expected.

"Sorry to disappoint, but your ninja lapdog won't be coming around anymore," Shane said as he stepped across the threshold, flanked by the rest of his team. The four ninjas automatically aligned themselves shoulder to shoulder, effectively blocking the way into the hallway. Tori pushed the door shut with the heel of her boot.

Morales composed himself surprisingly quickly. He put the papers down and folded his hands over them. "Well, well, what do you know? The Mod Squad. And you've brought a friend." He fixed the four teens with a cold glare. "Being that I don't see you carrying a bag holding half a million dollars, I can only conclude that you didn't show up here to spare me a trip into the city, but actually got your hands on Jared somehow." He shook his head. "Of all my employees, I didn't think it would be _him_ who'd be squealing on me."

"Seems that all he needed was someone to show him just how wrong it was to get involved with scum like you," Tori spat out.

"And now he's ready to regain his honor with the Wind Ninja Academy," Dustin added.

"Honor?" Julio snorted derisively as he pushed himself up from his leather chair. "Bullshit. That'll get you nothing. Honor is for dreamers. In the real world, it's all about power and money." There was a glint in Morales' brown eyes, but it was without the maniacal quality usually associated with lunatics. Those same brown eyes, however, were also completely devoid of any sympathy or even the smallest shred of warmth as he stared at the ninjas from across his desk.

Shane shook his head. "And that's where you're wrong, Morales. But we don't have the time to be discussing morals with _you_! You know what we're here for."

"Ah, yes," Julio said and a cold, hard smile played across his features. "Your friend should be expiring any moment now, I believe."

If looks could kill, then the glares he received from the four ninjas would have struck Julio dead in an instant.

"Where is the antidote, Morales?" Shane growled.

Morales kept the smirk on his face. "Tell me: Where's your fifth Ranger?" he inquired casually. It was an obvious attempt of stalling for time and it had Shane worried that maybe the drug lord had already activated a silent alarm.

"None of your concern," Blake replied curtly.

"Enough talk, Morales," Shane said with a sharp wave of his hand. "I'm not going to ask you again: Where is the antidote?"

This time, at the mention of the remedy, Morales' eyes inadvertently flickered to his right, where a large oil painting hung on the wall at an odd angle. It seemed to be leaning slightly away from the wall, as if on hinges. The drug lord's look lasted only for an instant, but it was enough for Shane to catch the meaning behind the glance. _'Something behind that picture...the safe?'_

Julio moved, but he did not get farther than one step before Shane had already leapt up and somersaulted over the desk, effectively putting himself between Morales and the wall and caught his arm before he could push the painting, and the possible safe door behind it, closed.

Morales yanked his arm back in an attempt to twist his wrist free of Shane's grip, and the Air ninja delivered a forceful kick at Morales' midsection. Julio staggered backwards a few steps, bumped into the wall next to his office window and promptly doubled over, gasping for breath.

"We'll take the antidote," the Air ninja said, "and while we're at it, we'll take you as well. To jail!"

"Like hell you are!" Julio straightened up while at the same time, his hand reached into his jacket and the ninjas suddenly found themselves with a gun pointed at them.

Before any of them could react, Morales aimed the weapon and squeezed off a shot towards Dustin, but at the exact same instant, Shane released a powerful gust of air that blew the trajectory of the bullet off course and into the ceiling. Morales snarled and swivelled his gun around at Shane, only to have it literally explode in his hand by a dark blue bolt of lightning.

"Anyone ever told you that it's not polite to point?" Blake smiled without humor as the drug dealer yelped in pain, the broken pistol clattering to the floor in several pieces. Blake, Dustin and Tori were on him in an instant, tackling him to the floor. Shane moved towards the heap of bodies as well, but Tori whipped her head around.

"Check the safe, Shane!"

"Ah...right. On it."

The Air ninja turned on his heel and yanked the oil painting aside. His breath came in a sigh of relief when an open steel door was revealed behind it. He groped around the dark space until his hand closed over something small and tube-shaped. He pulled his hand back to find himself holding a slender glass phial capped with a black plastic stopper. At first he thought it was empty, but a closer inspection showed that it was filled to the top with a clear liquid. The antidote! It had to be!

Just to be sure, Shane searched the safe once again, but the small vault held nothing else other than papers.

By the time he turned around with the vial in his hand, Dustin and Blake had already hauled Morales to his feet and were holding him safely in place between them. Tori was looking at him questioningly and Shane held up the tube, then nodded towards the window. Somebody was bound to have heard the shot and they needed to get out of here quickly. And while the Water ninja fumbled with the window lock, Shane tucked the vial into his jacket pocket and stepped close to Morales. "Oh, and to answer your question: Our fifth Ranger is right where he belongs; by our sixth one's side. And that's where we'll be in a moment, too."

Just then, Tori got the window unlocked and slid the glass pane aside. The instant she did, a high-pitched wail reverberated through the room. The ninjas jumped.

' _Great,'_ Shane thought dismayed _. 'If Julio's boys aren't already on the way here, they sure will be now.'_

Morales flashed them a smirk, which promptly turned into an expression of pain as Shane roughly gripped his shirt collar. "High time to go!"

From beyond the office door suddenly came the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps, followed by a yell.

"Mister Morales!"

A moment later, the heavy wooden door was thrown open and five men burst into the room, armed with guns and rifles. They swung their weapons in all directions, but all they caught was a flash of multi-colored light by the open window. By the time any of them had the chance to point a gun, the only thing that remained of the unseen intruders or their boss was a breeze ruffling the curtains.

 

_**Justice…** _

Sheriff Marty Carpenter scowled at his computer screen, his entire attention focused on the program in front of him, so when his intercom chimed, he actually flinched. With a growl, he stabbed the comm button. "This better be important, Marge. I told you I have to get these expense reports done _today_."

"I'm sorry, sir, but there are some people here to see you." His secretary's usually composed voice sounded strangely flustered.

"People? What people?" Carpenter snapped.

"Uhm…the Power Rangers, sir. And they have Julio Morales with them."

Sheriff Carpenter was around his desk and through his office door in record time, and the sight before him was certainly something to behold: The Yellow, Blue and Navy Rangers were standing in the hallway, holding a disheveled-looking Julio Morales between them. The drug lord's hair was wild, and his expensive suit looked like it had been hung up in a wind tunnel. His olive complexion was waxen and he was swaying on his feet. His hands were bound with a silk tie.

The Yellow Ranger nodded in greeting. "How're you doing, Sheriff? We happened to run into this _gentleman_ here and since we know that you've got a few questions for him, we thought we'd drop him off here." The yellow helmet turned towards Morales, then back to the sheriff and Carpenter could hear the amusement in the Ranger's voice. "Give him a few minutes, though. We travel at a somewhat higher speed than the average Joe, and as you can see, he hasn't quite gotten his breath back yet."

"And here is a set of directions on how to get to his secret headquarters," the Blue Ranger added, handing him a sheet of paper of what looked like a hand-drawn map. "The drug lab is in the basement, but we suggest you move out fast, before his men manage to clean it out again and hightail it out of there."

Sheriff Carpenter automatically reached for the paper, but in his lingering bafflement, he was slow to find his voice. "I don't…how did you guys manage to…?"

The Navy Ranger took a step forward. "There's unfortunately no time to explain, sir. We need to catch up with our Red Ranger who had to take off on an urgent errand. He sends his regards, by the way." And with that, the male Rangers gave Morales a slight shove towards the sheriff and motioned to go. A firm grip on the Yellow Ranger's arm held him back, however, and Dustin turned to find Julio Morales glowering at him.

"So you think you've won, don't you?" the drug dealer spat out. "You forget that I know who you are. I will talk to the press, blow your identities wide open…"

The Yellow Ranger stepped almost conspiratorially close to him and lowered his voice. "So you saw us morph - big deal. You might know who the _ninjas_ behind the Ranger helmets are, but that's not going do you any good at all." Dustin smirked behind his visor, and he knew that Morales could hear it in his voice. "What are you gonna do? Give the press directions to a non-existent ninja school in the woods? No one would believe your crazy story. But even if someone did, all we have to do is deactivate the holographic entrance and no one will find as much as a stone out of place in the clearing behind it."

"That's right," Tori contributed to the hushed conversation. "Lothor was nothing if not meticulous when he sucked the academy up into space."

"You've got nothing on me my lawyers couldn't get me out of; with one phone call I'll be out of here within the hour," Morales hissed defiantly.

"Well, let's see..." Tori raised a gloved hand, ticking off her fingers. "The mountain retreat with the meth lab inside, your office with the safe which is probably full of files and other records, your computer..."

"Not to mention that at least a few of your 'employees' _will_ snitch on you in exchange for a plea bargain," Dustin chimed in.

Blake put a hand on the drug lord's shoulder in a mock-friendly gesture. "No, Morales, I think this time, not even Johnnie Cochran and James Shapiro combined would be able to get you out of this one."

Morales said nothing; he simply glared at the Rangers, and his face was dark with rage.

 

_**Just in time…** _

The fast-paced thumping of boots made Hunter look up to see a shadowy form materialize in the doorway of Cam's room. A moment later Shane had crossed the distance to the hospital bed. He wordlessly held up the glass phial and Hunter didn't even have to ask what was inside.

No words could adequately convey his feelings at that moment, so Hunter poured all of the relief and joy he felt into the look he gave Shane as he took the tube from the Air ninja.

His hand was shaking when he pulled out his cell phone to call Doctor McAllister.


	11. Chapter 11

Two days later, Ninja Ops' subterranean silence and Tori, Blake and Hunter's Christmas tree decorating was broken by the twin sounds of boots bounding down the stone steps.

"Is he _still_ sleeping, dudes, or sleeping _again_?"

Hunter looked up at Shane, as the Red and Yellow Rangers walked into the command room and stared at Cam's closed door. "Again. He was up for about an hour earlier."

Ever since Cam's recovery from his too-close brush with death, the samurai had not been able to stay awake for longer than a few hours at most. Doctor McAllister had predicted this, but it was still amusing for all of them to watch Cam nod off mere minutes after sitting down on anything that had a seat cushion and a backrest. And on any horizontal surface such as a sofa or a mattress, he had yet to make it even that long.

Shane and Dustin first looked at each other, then back at Tori and the Thunder Rangers, both of them grinning like Cheshire cats.

Tori was puzzled. "What?"

In lieu of an answer, Dustin plopped his backpack down on the command table and started rummaging around inside. A moment later, he was holding up a CD case and two gaming controllers.

"Ever wanted to find out how it would be to play Supercross '06 on an 80-inch computer screen?"

The Bradleys couldn't help but to join in the grin-fest, but the two Wind ninjas hadn't crossed half the distance to the Supercomputer when Cam's door opened and the technician emerged. He must have sensed the impending threat to his beloved gadget.

Shane and Dustin changed directions without missing a beat. "Hey, Sleeping Beauty's up at last," Shane exclaimed, his face a mask of perfect innocence.

 _Rumpled_ was not a state any of the ninjas had ever seen Cam in, but now they were treated to just that sight. "Don't even start; I have a lot of sleep to catch up on, after all," Cam said as he ran a hand through his sleep-tousled hair and tugged on his t-shirt in a futile attempt to straighten out the worst wrinkles. His eyes fell onto the Red and Yellow Rangers who were still clutching the game controllers and his face split into a wry grin.

"I'm pretty sure I know what you guys were up to just now, and - go ahead."

"Really?" The two Wind ninjas stared at him with looks ranging from skeptical to incredulous. It made Cam chuckle.

"Sure. Go on, play your game. It's Christmas Eve, after all. But I can't let the surveillance system be down too long, guys, so don't go crazy, okay?"

"All right, sweet!"

"Thanks, Cam!"

"No, thank you guys," Cam mumbled under his breath, trying to keep his grin to a minimum as he watched them scramble towards the Supercomputer.

"That's the Christmas spirit," Hunter said as he slung an arm around his boyfriend's shoulders, just casual enough not to be obvious. He grinned as Cam rolled his eyes. "Come on, you can help us decorate, if you're up to it."

And so, the members of Blue Bay Harbor's Power Rangers team spent the next hour split between decorating Ninja Ops' Christmas tree and demolishing each other at virtual motocross. The tree adornment ended with some graceful acrobatics from Tori - aided by the Thunder Rangers - to put the finishing ornament on top. Almost simultaneously, Shane's exasperated cry ended the Supercross game and no one needed to ask which Wind ninja had won.

Sensei suggested some hot spiced cider and before long, the six teens and their mentor were assembled around the twinkling fir tree, steaming mugs in hand. Of course, the conversation inevitably turned to Julio Morales before long.

At one point, Blake slunk away and was back again a little too quickly to have gone to the bathroom as Hunter had assumed. With a small, mysterious grin, the dark-haired Thunder ninja sat back down next to his brother, but did not divulge any explanation. Hunter frowned, but shrugged it off, laughing along with the rest of the team when Dustin launched into an impersonation of the drug lord's state of dishevelment after their streak from the mountain.

Sensei then somersaulted expertly from his mobile habitat and into their midst without spilling a drop of cider from his own miniature cup. In his paw he held a folded page of newspaper.

"I do not know whether any of you has seen this morning's paper, but this is the article about Julio Morales' arrest and the part the Power Rangers played in it," the Wind teacher announced. "He is being held without bail and scheduled to be sentenced right after the Holidays. Apparently, there is so much evidence against him that the trial is expected to be rather quick. I am very proud of you all, Rangers." He bowed to the Rangers, and his students bowed back, all of them grinning from ear to ear.

"Yeah, well, now that Julio and his cohorts are in prison, we can celebrate not only Christmas but also cleaner streets. I'll drink to that," Shane said and held up his mug for the intended toast before he took a sip. The others followed suit.

Sensei nodded. "Yes, and once Jared finishes his time in Juvenile Detention, he'll return to the academy."

"If there is an academy again by then," Dustin mumbled, and Sensei fixed him with an intent gaze.

"There will be!" he said, his furry face set in grim determination.

"But Sensei," Blake argued carefully, "even though Jared did end up doing the right thing in the end and led us to Morales, do you really think that letting him rejoin the Academy is the best thing? I mean, how can we really know that we can trust him now?" The Navy Ranger cast a look around at his teammates most of whom were nodding in agreement.

Sensei scratched his head thoughtfully before he replied. "I believe that a ninja who has fallen from grace but has been given a second chance to redeem himself will indeed prove to be a most loyal warrior."

To the Rangers' surprise, it was Cam who voiced his support to his father's opinion. "I agree," he said solemnly. "Jared has made some really bad choices, but turning himself in to the authorities and testifying against Morales clearly shows that he wants to rectify those mistakes. If he wants to re-join the Wind Academy, we'll of course keep a close eye on him, but we shouldn't deny him the chance to come back."

The assembled Wind and Thunder Rangers were clearly surprised at Cam's leniency towards the man who had almost killed him, but no one expressed any further discontent. The decision was made and that they would adhere to their sensei's wishes went without saying.

"And once the Wind Academy is back, one of the first things to be done is to relieve ourselves of Morales' drug money," Sensei Watanabe decreed. "There are many charitable organizations in Blue Bay Harbor that would benefit from an anonymous donation."

At this, heads were bobbing more easily in ready agreement and Sensei was glad to see the ninjas sharing his view on how the money should be put to good use.

Dustin suddenly nudged Cam playfully. "So Cam, what're you gonna do now? Go to Disneyland?" he quipped, quoting the popular TV commercial. "I mean, now that you have cheated death and all…"

Amidst the grins of his teammates, Cam shrugged, seemingly insouciant. "I never had any intentions of crossing over in the first place. Over there, on the other side, there's no guarantee there'd be any computers. I couldn't risk that. What would I have done all day long?" The technician deadpanned, contrary to the rest of the team who could not quite keep their faces straight. Snickers erupted among the Wind and Thunder Rangers until Ninja Ops was filled with their laughter. Before long, however, Cam's face turned somber again. "Seriously, though; without you guys, I probably _would_ be sitting on a cloud by now, twiddling my thumbs." The samurai stared into his mug for a moment, then looked around into the faces of his team members. "I guess what I'm trying to say is - thanks, guys, for not giving up on me."

This was received with a chorus of snorts and other indignant sounds.

"Are you kidding?" Shane exclaimed. "We would never give up on you."

"But you have to give yourself some credit here, too," Tori said. When Cam's eyebrows drew together in confusion, she elaborated. "I mean, we didn't exactly do a great job of finding Morales in time and it was your determination and your Ranger powers that kept you alive as long as it did."

"True."

"Yup."

"That's right, dude!"

"Uh-huh."

Cam smiled, warmed by the outpouring of support from his friends.

They sat together for another half hour, joking, chatting and just generally enjoying each other's company. Before long, though, Dustin was the first to reluctantly break up their little round.

"Dudes, I'm sorry, but I still got, like, super-late Christmas presents to buy for the family, you know," he said apologetically as he rose.

Shane left not long after, citing that some of his relatives had flown in to spend the holidays in Blue Bay Harbor, and he did not want to arouse anyone's suspicions by staying away from home for hours on Christmas Eve.

Tori and Blake left together since Tori had invited Blake for Christmas dinner at her house. It was to be the first time he would meet her parents, and when he hugged Hunter goodbye, the Crimson Ranger was only too aware of the nervousness radiating from his younger brother. He gave him a supportive pat on the back and a look that said, _You go, bro!_

He watched Blake and his hopefully soon-to-be _official_ girlfriend saunter up the stairs until he heard Cam next to him make a sound. Hunter turned his head to find his partner trying to stifle a yawn.

"I think I'll lie down for a while," the samurai said, rolling his shoulders in emphasis.

"What else is new?" Hunter grinned. "You've been up for a little over two hours; you've got to be wiped out."

"Very funny." Cam gave him his patented wry look as he rose, but the gaze turned to an almost careful expression when he asked, "Are you going to stick around a little longer?"

Hunter scratched his neck; he was glad Cam had asked since it wasn't like he had anywhere else to go and the last place he wanted to be right now was his and Blake's empty apartment. So he waved his hand in the direction of the Supercomputer and picked up one of the controllers. "Yeah, I thought I'd try my hand at that Supercross game," he said, smirking. "Don't get me wrong; it's not like I _need_ to practice to beat Blake or Dustin at this, but it never hurts to know the tracks before you play, ya know?"

There was amusement in Cam's eyes as he squeezed his shoulder affectionately. "All right. Have fun then. I'll see you later."

"'kay." Hunter gave him a parting grin and turned his attention towards the game. It was only a few minutes later, though, that he felt Cam's familiar presence behind him again. Without taking his eyes off the screen, he said, "Thought you wanted to take a nap."

"Yeah, I did." The samurai sounded amused, but Hunter didn't think it had anything to do with the way he had just wrapped his virtual bike around a tree. "But it seems your brother left some Christmas decorations in my room."

"Huh? Blake?" Hunter turned his head, his brows drawing together in confusion.

"I'm pretty sure it was Blake." Cam jerked his head in the direction of his room in a silent ' _check it out_ ' gesture. Curiosity piqued, Hunter put the controller down and padded after his boyfriend.

Cam's chamber was small and neat to a point of being Spartan since Cam had neither space nor time for clutter. Therefore, it was easy to spot the one thing out of place in the room.

There, on Cam's bed - or more precisely, on the pillow - lay a sprig of mistletoe.

Hunter let out an amused snort. _Case of Blake's mysterious disappearance from earlier on solved._ "That mushy idiot." He shook his head, but his trademark crooked grin emerged in full force nevertheless while he reached out to take Cam's hand and pull him close.

"Well, I guess we should stick to tradition..."

It was good to see Cam smile _that_ smile again. And suddenly it hit Hunter that this was the first time since Cam's return from the hospital that they were actually alone with each other. Alone without Cam being out cold, that was.

"Isn't this normally done _under_ the mistletoe?" the Green Ranger quipped and Hunter's reply was prompt.

"Na, we're close to the mistletoe, that's good enough for me."

Cam's smile turned wry. "Same here," he said as he tilted his head back and met Hunter's mouth with his own. The Crimson Ranger responded eagerly, his arms wrapping around Cam's waist at the same time as Cam's fingers found their way into Hunter's hair. Cam's lips parted almost immediately, his impatient tongue too insistent to be ignored - not that Hunter ever had any intentions of ignoring it in the first place.

He sighed into Cam's open mouth, leaning into the kiss he had been aching for way too long, and before he knew it, he was holding Cam's head between his hands, thumbs stroking over angular cheekbones, then moving on to the soft skin of Cam's neck.

Cam responded in kind, the fingers still winding through Hunter's shaggy mop of hair tightening just enough to keep his head in place while the samurai explored his mouth with barely restrained passion.

Their kisses had become more familiar and less inhibited over the past few weeks, but Cam still mostly preferred the tentative, exploratory approach. Today, however, that nimble tongue darted in and out of Hunter's mouth, tracing his lips, teeth nibbling at the corner of his mouth before it returned again to seek out the tip of the Thunder ninja's own tongue for another languid, sensual dance.

Hunter couldn't help but smile into the kiss; normally, Cam was the one kissing with style whereas Hunter had always been the action type. But since Hunter had had to rein in his libido for the past few months for fear of scaring Cam off, it had involuntarily turned him into a connoisseur in the art of kissing and slow touches. Therefore it was not too hard a thing to do to let Cam set the pace of their kissing today. He let out an appreciative groan as Cam's hand slid under his shirt, warm fingers caressing his back in slow circular movements.

Hunter kept one hand on the side of Cam's face, but the other around the samurai's waist now pulled their bodies even closer together - before he suddenly let himself fall backwards without warning and they both collapsed onto the mattress. Hunter laughed at the small, yet undignified yelp that escaped Cam's lips as the Green Ranger landed on top of his partner.

"That was probably a bad idea," Cam remarked. "You know what's been happening to me lately when I hit a mattress."

"Well, then we'll just have to make the best of the little time we have until you conk out again," Hunter smirked.

And they did just that, continuing their kissing session for another few minutes until Hunter noticed that Cam was beginning to go slack in his arms. Apparently, even making out couldn't keep his partner's need for sleep at bay yet. Cam confirmed this notion only a moment later.

"Hunter?"

"Yeah?" the Thunder Ranger breathed against the side of Cam's neck between kisses.

"As much as I'd like to do this for the next few hours…" Cam made a noise that could have been a chuckle or a sigh. "I'm falling asleep. Sorry."

Hunter couldn't help but to laugh. "Not exactly a compliment to my make-out skills."

Cam joined in with a soft chuckle. "Not exactly one to my stamina, either."

"Okay, lay down. Rest."

Cam sank into the mattress with a sigh. "All right, but what are you going to do?"

Hunter shrugged, careful to make it look nonchalant. "I dunno. Hang out here some more, I guess, then go home."

Cam made a noncommittal noise and watched him for a moment with an all-too-knowing look in his eyes.

"Hunter?"

"Hm?"

"You could stay, you know."

That made Hunter blink. Now _this_ needed more clarification. "Stay as in - _stay_?"

A sly look crossed Cam's face. "Obviously."

"How long?" Hunter couldn't help but ask.

"All night would be great," the samurai said, never breaking eye contact with Hunter.

"I don't want to sleep alone tonight," he added.

Hunter was not exactly sure what this statement implied, yet he had no intention of turning Cam down. Was Cam ready for more between them, or should he take his partner's words at face value? Probably the latter, since it wasn't like Cam could possibly remain awake for much longer. So most likely, he would be holding a snoring samurai in his arms shortly after they had settled under the covers. But that was all right with Hunter. As long as he was near Cam, felt him move, heard him breathe, knew that he was alive, _alive_!

He wanted to say something witty, or at least something mildly salacious, but for some reason, his mind drew a blank. So he merely nodded. "Sure, no problem. I can stay." A smile crossed his face. "But first we gotta get you changed for bed." He swung his legs off the mattress. "I'm not going to let you sleep in your clothes."

Cam looked down on himself. "Why not? I've slept in them the past two nights."

"And that's exactly _why_ we're getting you out of them." Sporting his patented lopsided grin, Hunter held a hand out to Cam and hauled him off the bed.

Rolling his eyes in mock-exasperation, Cam crossed the short distance towards the dresser that served as his closet alternative. He rummaged through a drawer and a moment later, after only a brief hesitation on the samurai's part, two distinctly garment-like pieces sailed through the air.

"If I have to change, you change, too."

Hunter reflexively caught them with one hand held them both up for inspection - only to promptly snort a laugh.

"Flannel pajamas?" he exclaimed with a grin. Cam shrugged, his mouth turning upwards as well. Hunter blew up at his bangs. "Cam..."

But Cam was already laughing, a beautiful sound that made Hunter's heart jump. _How close had he been to never hearing that sound again..._

"Hey, you guys stayed here during the summer, so you didn't need those then, but in case you haven't noticed it yet..." He waved a hand at a little battery-powered space heater sitting in the corner. "Ninja Ops didn't come with a built-in heating system and it's been getting pretty cold down here lately, especially at night."

Hunter held up the green and black checkered pajama top. It actually looked like it could fit him. Which would mean that it almost certainly would be too large for Cam - which in turn would insinuate that Cam most likely hadn't gotten this for himself in the first place...Hunter managed to hold back both the knowing look and the wry grin that threatened to form on his face. This was definitely a matter that needed some more probing into at some point in time, but not tonight. Tonight they both had to catch up on some much-needed rest.

He flashed Cam a nostalgic smirk instead. "I haven't worn something like that since I was, like, eight."

"Yeah, well, don't get all reminiscent on me now, though." Cam grinned back. He then lit the two thick candles from the top of the dresser and turned off the harsh overhead lights. The room immediately took on a softer, more intimate atmosphere.

In silence they changed; Cam, being Cam, discreetly turned his back while donning his own green flannel PJ's. Hunter discarded his clothes in a wad on the floor whereas Cam neatly folded his shirt and pants, then draped it all over the back of a chair. They both instinctively kept their socks on. It _was_ winter, after all, no matter how many blankets Cam had stacked at the foot of his bed.

Hunter spread out one of the blankets and topped it with a quilted comforter before they both slid under the covers. They arranged themselves comfortably, bodies turned towards each other, and Hunter suddenly had this vision of the two of them creeping out of the room and into the command center in the morning, looking for presents under the Christmas tree - both of them still wearing their flannel pajamas. A single picture of that, and Sensei would have enough ammunition to blackmail them for the rest of their lives. It made Hunter snicker.

"What?" Cam's eyes twinkled with mirth at his partner's amusement.

When Hunter told him, he couldn't help but chuckle as well. "Oh god, the look on Dad's face would be priceless. But you're right; I think he would milk this for all it was worth."

"Definitely."

"So we agree that word of _this_ –" Cam pointed first at himself, then at Hunter. " – does not leave this room."

Hunter wasn't exactly sure whether Cam was referring to the pajamas or to themselves, but he nodded anyways. "Okay."

"Not even to Blake."

Okay, at least now he _knew_ Cam was talking about their sleep wear. "Not even to Blake," he echoed, the smirk growing again.

He didn't know how long they lay snuggled up together under the comforter, legs entwined and Cam's head resting in the crook of Hunter's shoulder. It wasn't long, though, until Hunter could feel his partner's shoulders sagging and his body relaxing. Hunter lay quietly for a long moment until the increased weight of Cam's head against his shoulder confirmed to him that his partner had fallen asleep. In the faint and flickering light of the candles, Hunter watched Cam's slack face for a while longer before he closed his own eyes for some well-deserved rest and let out a sigh.

Just how _did_ he feel about Cam? Hunter had asked himself that question innumerable times in the past few weeks, but he had never come up with a definite answer.

Not until the hospital. Forced to watch helplessly as Cam was being pulled back from the abyss of death he had finally seen clearly that a future without Cam in it just wasn't an option anymore. He was way over his head into this.

He had often asked himself whether this thing they had was just sex or love. Not that they had gotten very far in the former yet, but _love_? A scary concept for Hunter - until the monitor had flatlined.

The horror of the hours that followed was something Hunter wanted very much to lock away in his memories and never open that particular door of his mind again. What he _did_ want to remember -as a matter of fact, what he had replayed countless times in his mind over the past two days - was the moment Cam had opened his eyes again and looked at him. It had taken a few hours after Dr. McAllister had administered the antidote, but Cam's vital signs had responded to the serum almost immediately and had continuously improved during the following hours. If it hadn't been for the fact that the entire team was assembled in the hospital room at that moment - including Sensei, whom Dustin had smuggled in inside his jacket pocket - Hunter would have pulled his partner into his arms and kissed him senseless. His spirits had soared higher than Shane's Hawk Zord, and judging from the cries of joy that erupted from everyone around him, his friends had felt the same way.

Yes, he loved Cam. And one day the time would be right to tell him.

But how did _Cam_ feel? Could he, Hunter, risk opening his heart so completely to someone who might not feel the same way? Could he live with potential rebuff? Or the commitment, for that matter, if Cam reciprocated his feelings?

It would have to be addressed some day, but not anytime soon, Hunter decided. For now it was enough to just be here and near Cam, and a solid eight hours of blissful oblivion in a too-narrow bed at who knows how many feet below the earth's surface in near pitch blackness holding the warm and breathing body of the man he loved in his arms sounded really good right about now.

Cheek pressed into Cam's hair, Hunter hugged him closer and smiled when he heard the content sigh Cam emitted in his sleep.

And so, Christmas Eve went and Christmas Day came, but for the two young men entwined in each other's limbs and warmth, it arrived unnoticed as they slept on, peacefully and dreamlessly.

**THE END**


End file.
